The card will lead us to victory
by Fuko-Sun
Summary: Ume Hikari is a plain young girl. She hasn't got any real friends, but every day she plays a card game with Misaki Tokura. It all chances when the school bully busts into the store one afternoon, holding a card that most definitely doesn't belong to him and Ume suddenly finds herself in a unmanning situation that involves cards. What will she do? Couple AichiXOCXKai (being beta)
1. Chapter 1

_**Hey everyone. This chapter has been re-done. Beta-corrected. Yay the others will come along soon. **_

_**Couples-AichiXOC and KaiXOC**_

_**TaishiXOC and ShinXOC - Sibling. Brother and Sister**_

_**I am a rookie at writing. Please do tell me if I've wrote something wrong, I will fix it as soon as I see your message^^**_

_**A big fat thank you to my lovely beta, StuffStuff! Thank you so much^^**_

_**Enjoy**_

* * *

Chapter 1

"You're back again?" an indifferent voice called out, as a plain, young girl stepped through the sliding doors. The plain girl always visits Card Capital. She stands quietly and runs her large green eyes over the stacks of cards. Always seen in her Hitsue Middle School uniform; a white and grey sailor-like sweater and skirt. The girl has shoulder length black hair with a tint of purple at the top 'a pair of bug-like antennae hairs poked out of her locks', the black hair frames her unusual big and round green eyes which she tries to hide behind her hair.

Holding her book bag tightly in her hands, the dark haired girl smiles brightly and nods her head, locks bouncing around her face, "Hai!"

"I've got new cards, want to play 23?" the same voice questioned. The girl looks at the beautiful young woman sitting behind the counter. Misaki Tokura; the woman is beautiful. Much more beautiful than herself.

Unlike herself, Misaki has long pure lavender hair with curls at the end, her hair frames her sparkling blue eyes. She has pale skin and is normally seen in her college uniform. A black blazer with a red strip around the shoulders, a white shirt with an untied ribbon and a long black skirt. The woman works at the store, Card Capital and despite working in the store, she isn't interested in games, but she plays small games such as 23 with the young girl for obvious reasons.

Embarrassingly, the young girl never talks to anyone at her school, people believed she is mute because all she ever does is nod or shake her head.

Miaski was the one who had snapped at her for being impolite, a couple of days after she had started to come to the store. The dark head girl had been surprised and scared when the older woman glared at her and said that she had been talking to her and she hadn't received an answer. Flushing, the younger girl squealed out her problem with panic boiling within her stomach; she had feared that she had upset the woman. Surprisingly Misaki had understood her feeling and problems and admitted that she wouldn't mind as much if the girl comes to the store and talks with her. The 15 year-old had been doing ever since. Misaki had become her only friend and she would tell her everything. Despite what people believed, Misaki had learnt the girl wasn't shy or timid, she was bubbly and out-going, she just had problems talking to people she didn't know.

"Ume." Misaki spoke monotonously, watching the girl take the stool next to her. The little black kitty quickly leaped into his favourite bed, Ume's lap, and laid on his back, allowing the girl to pet his stomach. Ume hummed while she took the cards Misaki held out.

Swiftly, the sliding doors opened and two boys from her school appeared. Ume jumped in surprise at them and Misaki just gave an annoyed look.

One boy had curly brown hair with large amber eyes. He appeared to be worn out as he leaned over with his hands on his knees. The other boy had dark black hair formed into a pair of spikes with bright crimson eyes. Both boys are dressed in the Hitsue Middle School, male uniform.

"They're from your school right?" Misaki asked, looking at the dark haired girl who numbly nodded with a confused expression on her face, "Why is he so worked up?" Ume's eyes widened as she frowned. She knew the black haired boy from school. He is a bully, he picked on everyone. Katsumi Morikawa. What an ass! She doesn't understand how a boy like Yuta Izaki could be friends with him. Unlike Morikawa, Izaki is actually an alright guy. He is kind and helpful; he gave her advice with math at one point. It frustrated her to know he follows after Morikawa like a lost puppy.

The black haired boy ran towards two other boys sitting at a table. Both boys are from another school with their navy blue blazers. The former had unusual blonde hair that spiked out everywhere with baby-blue eyes and tan skin, and the later had chocolate brown hair that was swiped to the side with narrowed green eyes and pale skin.

"Challenge!" Morikawa growled, throwing his finger out at the brunette.

"You're no challenge…" the brunette trailed off with a uncaring expression.

Ume stared at him before realizing it is Toshiki Kai. The boy would come to the store every now and then, he is also considered to be a very good card-player in the card game Vanguard. A game she, herself has played a couple of times. Her eyes sparkles as she turns them to look at the blonde, if Kai is here than so is his friend Taishi Miwa.

Suddenly Morikawa sneered angrily, he swung his fist around while his red eyes narrowed darkly at Kai, "You talk like a big short! I want a rematch!" he demeaned, "To decide who is the best in this shop! Once and for all!"

"Thanks, but no thanks…" Kai sighed, turning his head away from Morikawa and rested it against his hand. Ume giggled to herself, the somewhat older male doesn't look too interested in Morikawa, she hadn't seen anybody ever stand up to the boy, "You're not very good at this game. You have no foresight. Your style is pretty weak. All you care about is force. Playing you again will just be a waste of my time, so why bother?"

Taishi blinks his bright blue eyes, they shimmer as he ducks his head with a soft chuckle, "Dude~ that's harsh~"

Ume tilts her head, finding herself completely drawn within the conversation. Her green eyes widen in surprise when Morikawa let out another shriek, she briefly wonders why he is so dramatic, "You won't get anything out of it, huh! Then what about this!" he yells loudly and rips out a card from his coat, "If you beat me, you can have this card!"

His blue eyes widen with wonder, Taishi pushes himself up in amazement, "Whoa! That's Blaster Blade! Cool man, that's great!" he grins brightly at Morikawa. Ume frowns, she swears she had seen that card somewhere else, somewhere back at school and the more she tried to remember, the more she found her chest tightening and her heart thumping harshly within.

"Be quiet!" Misaki suddenly cut through the boys conversation; Ume almost fell straight of the stool from the woman's sudden words. Blushing, she rubbed the back of her head and shyly glances at the lavender head woman.

"Misaki?" she began but got cut off when the girl places a card down on the counter.

"I'm winning Ume." Misaki stated, almost proudly. Ume blinks, dumbly at first before it all came rushing back to her and she remembered the small game they were having.

Gasping, she looked down and whined loudly, "I want a rematch! Misaki!" the other simply smirked and began to shuffle the cards once more.

"Fair enough."

Ume pouted, her head ducked once more. Mentally sobbing loudly to herself about how bad she is at card games, "I can believe I got it wrong both times! Curses!" she sighed to herself.

Misaki smiled and pats her on the head, "It just means today isn't your day. Remember yesterday? You beat me three times in a row." the woman commented on last nights game, remembering how the girl had cheered so loudly that a few of the costumers had left. Misaki is pulled from the memory of yesterday when she noticed Ume had suddenly frozen. With a troubled frown, the older woman lightly pokes her shoulder, "Ume?" she calls out softly, waving her hand infront of the girls face and frowns at the soft mumbling that escape her lips. Ume's face turning redder every minute.

"So, that's Sendou Aichi?"

Almost tumbling of the stool again, Ume snaps out of her embarrassing thoughts and shook her head, "M-Misaki! Shh, he'll hear you…" she whispered, her cheeks turning redder, "But why is he here?" Ume thought, peering at the boy who had just stepped into the store. He never comes here. Sendou Aichi, a boy in her year and sadly, the two weren't in the same class. Aichi is a shy and timid boy 'he doesn't talk as much either' he had shoulder length blue hair that had a white tint at the tip, the blue locks frames his bright blue eyes. Embarrassingly, Ume had a massive crush on him in middle school and it had only gotten stronger since the two had been in the same class. Ume was sad but yet relieved when she found out the two wasn't in the same class this year, she wasn't sure if she could have handled seeing him while feeling this way. Like her heart would leap from her chest. Closing her eyes tightly, feeling her heart thump harder in her chest, she had told Misaki about the boy she had fallen in love with when the two had somehow gotten onto the topic of it.

Breathing deeply, Ume felt goose bumps run up and down her arms and legs, after a couple of seconds she opened her eyes to see the bluenette in the grey uniform out of breath as though he had been running. Becoming overwhelmed with concern for the boy, Ume watches as he approaches the table with the Vanguard game.

"G-Give me my card back!" Aichi cried out helplessly, staring at Morikawa making the other boys to jump startled and look at him. Ume frowns, she ducks her head allowing her hair to cover her face as she finally remembers where she had seen that card before. The card belongs to Aichi, she remembers seeing him look at it for no reason, during class or after class, "Morikawa, give it back. Come on! It means a lot to me."

Ume frowns deeper, feeling frustration itch up in her stomach, "So that is it. Morikawa took it from him and then bet it away." she thought to herself, her eyes closes and she pushes herself from the stool, "Morikawa! That is the lowest thing I've ever seen! Taking a card from somebody and then dealing it away." she found herself say, her voice high that it even surprised herself, especially when her body moved to stand next to Aichi with her hands on her hips. Ume couldn't believe what she is doing, normally she would have stayed in the shadows and just wanted, why in hell is she doing this!

"Whoa! That is low dude…" Taishi agreed with Ume, nodding his head and crossing his arms, "I'm guessing that card would be yours?" he asked, pointing at Blaster Blade. He felt disappointed with the black head male student.

Aichi shook, his eyes looks down at the card and he gasps, "yes. That's my card." he breathed and moved to take it when Kai suddenly lifted it before he could touch it, "please give it back."

"This card belongs to me." Kai spoke, almost without care. Ume's eyes widen with surprise, she thought Kai would have given it back when he found out Morikawa was being a rat. She just stared with an unbelievable look on her face at the brunette, she had watched him play, he always seemed fair during his games. Her heart dropped at the look that crosses Aichi's face, he looked broken almost like he had just been slapped. Lowering her eyes, not wanting to look at the expression, Ume sighed and wondered what to do. Both Ume and Aichi jumped, startled as Kai stood up and looked at them, "It is important that we respect the rules of the battle. Don't you think? This guy bet me the card and lost."

Ume stared up at Kai, searching his face for any signs of seriousness and she found her stomach flip with disbelief, "Fine then. What if Aichi plays you for the card back? That's alright, isn't it? It follows the rules of the battle." she snorted, making air quotes as she spoke the last sentence.

The young black haired girl jumped and blushed lightly when Aichi suddenly grabbed her shoulders and Ume found that she is actually taller than him now, only by a bit, "W-wait! I don't even know how to play Vanguard." he cried out, depressingly with wide blue eyes and Ume had to remind herself what is going on and not to end up losing herself within the pools of blue.

"Do you have a deck?" she questioned, ignoring Morikawa who had leaped to his feet, "Why don't you just sit down." she snorted, looking at the red-eyed boy who growled and sat back down with his arms crossed.

"…U-Um…" Aichi blinks his eyes, his cheeks a little pink as he pulled his book bag to his chest and unclipped it, "I…I…It is t-true…I've n-never played V-Vanguard before…" he mumbled softly, rattling around within his book bag and gently pulled out a red card-case and handed them to Ume who flipped them over and quickly looked through them, "I b-build this deck just in c-case if I ever got the chance…"

Ume listened and nodded her head and smiled gently at Aichi, Ume held the deck back, "Your deck is good; it's well balanced. Don't let somebody who is false scare you away." she smiled at him and bit her bottom lip hard when Aichi nodded with his own smile and gently took deck back, "So? What about it? There isn't any harm in trying right?" Ume then asked, turning to look at Kai.

Kai's green eyes flashes in the light above him, he turns his body around and tilts his head back, "Alright then. You've got yourself a battle." he smirked and Ume smiled thankfully at him. Kai sighed and closed his eyes, "Take a set and get comfy." he spoke, pointing at the chair. Ume steps back and allows Aichi to walk towards the other side of the table.

"Move it along loser boy~" Taishi grinned wider, moving Morikawa roughly out of the way and comes to stand next to Ume. He glances down at her and hums, but keeps quiet. Morikawa growls and stands on Taishi's other side with his arms crossed over his chest, he looked beyond annoyed, such a swore loser.

"Why are you so happy about this?" he questioned, looking at Taishi with narrowed red eyes.

Taishi laughs gleeful, his eyes sparkles as he places his hands into his pockets, "I'm excited about this battle. We're just about to witness a battle between the best player in the store and a guy who has never played the game. This is going to be hilarious."

Morikawa lets out a puff of air, his shoulders hunched with annoyances, "Stop saying he is the best player!"

Ume groans and glares up at him, cutting the dark haired boy off, "shut it! The battle is about to start!" she snaps and Taishi laughs at the fact Morikawa had backed away from such a small girl.

Ume barely reaches Taishi's shoulder, he easily placed his hand on top her head, "Calm yourself, little red riding hood." Ume blinks bewilderment appears on her face. Why did Taishi call her red riding hood? Last time she checked, her hair is black not red. With a crooked frown, she looks down at the battle, deciding to ask him about it later. Right now, she is more interested in the battle between the boy she admired and the boy she had, well loved.

"Since you've never played before, I'll explain the rules as we go along. Alright." Kai began, shuffling his card and looked at the bluenette with wide green eyes and Aichi nods his head in understanding, "Oh yeah. You won't stand much of chance against me without Blaster Blade in your deck." he spoke, holding the card up. Ume smiles, she tilts her head to the side, "So you can borrow it before I beat you and take it back." Kai spoke, looking up at Ume for a brief second and then turned his attention back to Aichi, Ume laughed nervously to herself wondering if that had to do with her calling him 'false' earlier.

"B-Blaster Blade…T-Thank you…" Aichi smiled happily, his cheeks turning a pale pink colour as he shovelled his cards.

Ume found her eyes softening at the expression that Aichi wore, it made her stomach fill with butterflies, "You're letting him borrow a card and you're going to explain the rules? How unusual sweet of you, Kai." Taishi spoke, leaning more on Ume, treating the incredibly short girl as a stand.

"Are you finshed? I'm going to explain this once, so pay a attention." Kai spoke placing his deck down onto the Vanguard mat on the table, "Let's start. Place a level zero on the middle circle." he placed down a card onto the middle card, "This is our Vanguard. Now listen." the brunette began, his green looked directly at the bluenette who nodded and quickly placed a zero monster onto the card mat. Kai breathed deeply, "our spirits have just been transferred to place similar to Earth called Cary. In this form there are only two powers we're allowed to use. The first allows us to summon the monsters of this planet. The cards in your deck are your units, call upon them as you will. But first we need to draw our first hand. The cards you draw can both attack and defend for you." Kai explained, holding up five cards in his left hand and pointed at them, a wide smirk settled across his face, "these's are your units. Each card has its own grade and powers, the other abilities will be on the card." Ume blinks her eyes and looks at the cards Aichi had drawn, she bit her bottom lip to prevent herself from smiling at them, Aichi had such cute cards, "And then there is our second power of our form. The power to ride is to posses one of our units."

"Oh really?" Morikawa spoke with bewilderment and both Ume and Taishi looked over at him with raised eyebrows, "Dude."

Kai sighed to himself, he looks at his card quickly before speaking, "The units we merge with is our Vanguard. You follow?" he asked, eyeing the bluenette who nods, "The word Vanguard means the one that leads the way."

"…the vanguard…leads the way…" Aichi repeats, his bright blue eyes burns with determination.

"Now, the object of the game is to land attacks on the opponents vanguard. The card in front you, is a grade zero, right?" Kai asked and nodded his head when Aichi let out a soft 'yes' "okay! Flip it over! Read? Stand up, the vanguard, Lizard-Stand-Zoon-Zoon!" he bellowed out and Ume blinks her eyes as she swears she had seen a blast of red light erupt from the card that Kai had flipped over.

Ume looked towards Aichi and watches as he flips his own over and like Kai a blast of blue light erupted from the card, "a-and for me, Stardust trumpeter! S-Stand up!"

Kai nods his head, "Our vanguards are ready to battle. It will be easier for me to explain if I go first. Okay?" he more demeans then asks Aichi, "you start each turn with drawing another card, each turn you can promote your vanguard just by one grade above. Stack that unit on top of the vanguard." he spoke, placing the new card over the other card, "Ride, the Embodiment of Armor, Bahr! Now, while your vanguard is promoted, you can summon lower-grade monsters to support them. They are called the rear-guards. I call the Flame of Hope. I now have two units on the field and with them I attack."

Aichi reeled back in shock, his blue eyes widen with disbelief and Ume puffs out her cheeks. Shyly she placed her hand onto his shoulder, "You can't attack on the first turn." she smiled down at him while the other boys next to her laughed at the relief expression that appeared on his face.

"The down side of going first." Kai added in, his green eyes closing with a flick of a hand, "It's your turn."

Aichi nodded and picked up a card from is deck, "R-right. I'll draw first. Ride, Little Sage, Marron." he called out, his voice hitching gently as he placed the card above his Stardust Trumpeter, "a-and W-Wingal too."

"Well, we've both got two units on the field. Are you attacking?" Kai asked, almost mockingly at the bluenette who breathed deeply in thought, and nodded.

"I'll…I'll attack you.." he called out bravely, almost unsure of the decision he made, "okay. Then do it. Turn your vanguard to signal the attack." Kai explained and watched as Aichi reached down to Marron's card and turned it to the side, "I'll attack your Bahr, with Marron."

Kai pointed down at Aichi's rear gaurds, "You can support your monsters attack with the rear guards power." he explained. Aichi nodded in understanding, "in...in that case I'll a-add Wingal's power to Marron's attack." he mumbled softly, his eyes flickering over his card, "when you attack, you need to turn the top of your deck to see if you have trigger card. Look for a mark in the upper right corner, if there isn't one add it to your hand."

Aichi blinks his eyes and gently places the card into his hand, "T-then? Does my a-attack go through?" he asked meekly and Kai nods his head with a 'uh-hu'. Aichi nods a 'okay'.

Ume smiles down at him, at least the boy is having fun, "Your attack overwhelmed my vanguard, this is the damage it coursed. Now if you can deal me five more damage, my barriers will vanish and you will win. Does it all make sense?" Kai asked and smirked wider when Aichi nodded slowly, "Well, it is good you're catching on. It's my turn. Ride the Dragon Knight, Nehalem! I call Bahr!" the brunette said, placing two cards down, one on top of the vanguard card and then Bahr on one of the rear circles.

Taishi chuckled loudly, his blue eyes flashes in the light above them, "No more mister nice Kai, ah." he smiles brightly. Ume breathes deeply, concern crawls around in the pit of her stomach, "Aichi."

Kai turns Bahr on it's side and than points out, "I attack Marron!" he says loudly and almost darkly, Aichi looks down at the two cards, he frowns in confusion, "um….Marron and Bahr have the s-same amount of power…" he mumbles softly, his eyes sparkles brightly with confusion, "When the power's the same the attack goes through." hearing such words, Aichi gasped and looked at Kai with wide eyes, "but if t-the attack goes t-though, t-than you'll be able to a-attack with Nehalem. I'll t-take two damage, right?"

"Yes, but you can weaken the attack by defending with the cards in your hand." Kai explained, lowering his head with his green eyes closed. Aichi looks at his cards and places a card out, "t-then I guard with the bringer of luck." he spoke, placing the card down.

Kai smirks, "the number on the side of the card becomes your shield. Bahr's attack isn't high enough to go through. My attack has no effect but now, that card you defended with has to go into the drop-zorn." Aichi blinks his eyes and looks down at the numbers, Bahr's attack is 8000 and Bringer of Luck's defense number is 10000, "Next I attack with Nehalem combined with Hope of Flame, Aermo's power. Not that I need it, but I'll check for a trigger." Kai spoke, lifting a card of his deck and held it up revealing no picture in th corner and placed the card into his hand.

Aichi breathes deeply and looks along his cards and took a card from his deck, he placed it into his damage zone on the mat. Now it is his move, Aichi takes another card and places it into his hand, "R-ride the Knight of Silence, Gallatin!" he cried out, placing his card over his Mallon card, "also, Marron and Pongal. I use Gallatin with the support of Wingal to attack Nehalem!" both boys lifted a card and Kai places a damage card into his damage bar, "Next Marron with the support of Flogal will attack again!"

"Can't let you do that!" Kai places another Flame of hope into his shield, "Your attempt fails." Aichi looks down at the cards and frowns, almost helplessly before ducking his head and letting out a meek 'I guess it's the end of my turn…'

Kai watches Aichi's face and lets out a snort, "Why do you look so relieved? Did you seriously believe I'd let it end this way?" he chuckles darkly and takes another card, he looks down at it and his eyes flashes brightly, "Time for your final lesson. I call Demonic Dragon Mage, Kumara and Wyvern Strike Tejas." he says placing more cards onto the rear guards, "Picture it! The assault I'm about to place upon you. First I attack Marron with Bahr!"

"I guard with Flogal!"

Kai sorts, he chuckles and throws his hand out, "Then I'll come for Gallatin with Kumara supported by Wyvern Strike Tejas!" he smirks while Aichi gasps, "I can't stop that…" A smug expression runs across Kai's face, his green eyes flashes dangerously, "that's right! And they get a special bonus for supporting each other! Each gets 40000!"

Wincing, Aichi places another card on his damage bar, "n-now I have two damage as well. Guess we're the same."

Kai rolls his head to the side, his green eyes half-lidded he turns his Nehalem to the side, "Who says I finished attacking? I attack Gallatin with Nehalem supported by Hope of Flame, Aermo!"

The smaller boy looks at the card and gasps loudly, "Over 16000!"

Kai picks up a critical trigger and smirks wider when he looks at it, "You sure that is all?" he asks, revealing the card to the boy, "Look what is in the corner. Nehalem gets 5000 more points! When this mark appears, it gives you a 5000 bonus attack, it also increases the damage of the attack by one point."

"T-Then that means…" Aichi gasped, his eyes widening in shock.

"This attack is going to hit you for two! Once I get the lead, I don't give it up!"

Ume gasped, it is almost like the real battle is right in front of her, a high-pitch scream ran within her ears, the scream of Gallatin, "Whoa! Red riding hood!" Taishi chuckled catching her before she could tumble over, blinking her green eyes, she smiled at him before looking over at Aichi and gasped in concern when the boy almost fell of his chair, his face pale as a ghost, "Did he hear it too?" she thought, gently helping him back up to his chair, "Aichi! Take it easy." she said, comforting the bluenette, her own heart thumping harshly.

Aichi let out a small frustrated growl and pats her on the hand thankfully before placing two cards onto his damage bar, his lips pressed in a thin line, "Two damage. Putting me at the total of four, this is…bad…."

Kai smirks, he tilts his head to the side, "You were able to picture it I see. Witness! True Vanguard!"

"I guess this is over…" Taishi spoke, finally pulling fully from Ume, Morikawa smirked with his arms over his chest, his crimson eyes half lidded, "If it was me, I would still be able to make a come back." he spoke while the two boys next to him chuckled with sarcastic smiles, "Of course."

Ume stared at the boy she loves, the one she had rooted for. Looking down and allowing her hair to cover her face once more, she felt stupid for pushing Aichi into this, she felt stupid for actually talking to people she had only watched from a distances, "This is all my fault…" she thought sadly, her heart sinking to her stomach. After a couple of seconds, she looked up through her hair, "It's your turn. Unless you've lost the will to play…" Kai purred out, Ume bit her bottom lip and looked back at the depressed bluenette. Gathering her courage, the girl stepped up to Aichi and gently placed her shaking hand onto his shoulder, "Aichi-?" she began but yelped in surprise when he snapped his head around to look at her, at first she thought he was upset but she found her cheeks turning bright red and her heart bust with feelings at the warm smile on his face.

"I've had a lot of fun!" he spoke happily and then turned his head to look at Kai, "You're really good, but still…this battle has been a lot of fun."

Ume blinks her eyes and looks at Aichi and Kai, "do you know him or something?" Taishi asked her question.

Aichi breathed deeply, his eyes closing with a pleased smile on his face, "I hoped that one day I'd get to battle you."

"So then, you're Aichi….Sendou right?" Kai asked, rolling his head with a grin, Aichi nodded as he raised a card up.

"That is right Kai and you gave me the power to stand before you today." he spoke, twirling the card around to show Blaster Blade, "Let's go! Rise my Avatar! Ride!" he cried, placing it over his vanguard, Ume smiled and stepped away noticing a blue blast of light erupt from the card, "Blaster Blade!"

Taishi looks down at the card, his eyes sparkles, "Blaster Blade, huh?" he mumbles softly, "What luck, with a card like that, he actually stands a chance." Morikawa pouts, obviously upset that the smaller boy is doing better then he had down in his own fight with Kai.

"I activate Blaster Blades ability!" Aichi spoke, touching the cards and turning two over, "I counterblast two and I retire one of your rear-guards." Kai nodded and lifted one of his card and placed it into the drop-down part.

"I remember now. You were the kid with the cuts all over your face." Kai spoke, looking at Aichi, said boy nodded.

"Yeah, in those days, I was getting beaten up so much that I didn't want to go to school anymore. I felt like the world around me was crashing down, ever since I got that card from you, life had been a little better everyday. From the moment you gave this to me, I wanted nothing more than too battle you, I even made my own deck, but then, you moved away. You know while I was building this deck, I managed to forget all the horrible things around me…I still can't picture myself being any stronger, the person who showed me how to be happy again, is you Kai."

Ume found herself smiling at the bluenette, she admired him so much, especially after finding out about how hard life was for him. Ume had met the boy in her first year of middle school, she had transferred into the school from America, Aichi wasn't being beaten up then. Ume isn't sure if he remembered or not, but they did play together during middle school, "I call the Night of Silence, Gallatin to rear guard!" Aichi called out, placing the card down, "this battle is my way of saying thank you. I support Blaster Blade with Wingal and attack Nehalem!" he yelled out and watched as Kai lifted a card from his deck and placed it within his damage bar.

"Whoa…Kai took another damage…" Morikawa mumbled with amazement, Ume felt herself wheel up with excitement, "Next I support Mallon with Flogal and attacking Nehalem again." this time, Aichi spoke gently as Kai laid another damage card down into his damage bar, "I'll attack Nehalem one more time with Gallatin!"

"Whoa! A tripple attack! Taishi grinned widely, Morikawa gasped, his crimson eyes widen with disbelief, "This can't be the same Aichi Sendou from school." he wheezed out, watching as the brunette placed another damage card within the damage bar, "one more and it's all over. Kai's finally going to lose!" Taishi pouted, he looked over Kai and sighed, "Not likely, he hasn't even broken a sweat. Look, he's got some plan."

Ume smiled, her hands gripped her sweater tighter, she couldn't help but admire the bluenette much more, every passing minute she found herself falling more and more for the boy. Everything she had done once the two had been put into different classes had been ripped up, she had thought she had been getting over Aichi but apparently not. Today not only had she spoken to the boy she loved, but she had fallen for him even more. How embarrassing!

"It's your turn Kai." Aichi spoke softly, Kai let out a soft breath from the back of his throat, "I think you've miss understood, I didn't care about your feelings one bit, I just wanted you to start playing vanguard so I could beat you in a way those's bullies never could!"

"No wonder why I couldn't beat him! This guy is pure evil!" Morikawa grunted out, annoyed with Kai. Ume looks at Kai, she scans him before looking up at Taishi, she breathed out softly when she noticed the unbelieving expression on his face, the blonde obviously doesn't believe him.

Aichi shook his head, he looked at the brunette with large round blue eyes, "That's a lie! The Kai I know would never have done that!" he almost hiccupped as he spoke, Kai let out a snort and looked at the bluenette.

"I'm not the person you admire." he spoke, his eyes narrowing as he lifted a card up, Ume blinks when she noticed a flaming fire erupt from the card he lifted, she frowned in confusion and looked to see if anybody else noticed it, but found nobody had, "I guess it's about time I show you who I really am! Rise to Vanguard! Burn everything in sight to ash with your fire! Dragonic Overlord!"

"That's what he used on me…" Morikawa inhaled, looking at the card. Ume looked at the glowing red card with a small frown, "It's a grade 3. Aichi doesn't even have any grade 3's in his deck!" she thought, looking back at the bluenette, his eyes are narrowed in thought, already searching for an escape root, "hmm, this battle is over. I call two Manaka's!" Kai said, placing two cards onto the rear guards, "and then, I pay three cards to use Dragonic Overlord's special ability, his power just went up by 5000! I support Bahr with Manaka's power and I attack your Blaster Blade!"

Aichi's eyes widen before narrowing and he placed a card out, "Stardust Trumpeter guard me!" he begged, placing the card into the drop-zone.

"I'm not through yet, I support my other Manaka with Kimnara and attack your Blaster Blade again!" Kai yelled and once again, Aichi guarded with the last card in his hand, "I guard with Gallatin!"

"Whoa, he survived it!" Taishi grinned, his eyes widen with disbelief.

"Hmm? You used up your whole hand to hold me back? To bad for you that my attacks aren't even close to finish yet! Dragonic Overlord, it's your turn. I support Dragonic Overlord with Flame of hope! Attack Gallatin!" he ordered out, "G-Gallatin, why?" Aichi thought, removing the card from the field, "Dragonic Overlord? Stand up!" Kai chuckled, narrowing his eyes, almost evilly at the small bluenette, "Oh my, did I not tell you about his ability? When his counter attack is activated after he defeats a rear-guard than he stands back up. I won't stop attacking until all your units are burnt to a crisp! That is Dragonic Overlords' ability! Eternal Flame! Attack Mallon!"

Aichi blinks and gently places the card in the drop-slot, "M-Mallon is also retired…" he mumbled, chewing his bottom lip lightly.

"Remember last time? He stands back up!" Kai said loudly.

"Now we're talking…" Taishi sighed, looking at Morikawa who had thrown his fist out, "Can you image what it'd be like if I had one of those card's in my deck!"

Kai smirked his eyes narrowing more, "and now here's the last swing, I attack Blaster Blade!" Kai growled loudly, Ume shook from the horrible screams that rang through out her ears, she wanted to cover her ears and noticed Aichi is doing the same thing, she wondered once again if he heard them too, "I'll check my trigger! Look, I've got another sweet trigger! This adds one more to damage!" Kai hums, tilting his head, smugly, "but then that means…" Aichi trailed off, eyes widen, "Two gets added to the four you've got, it's over!"

The small raven head boy placed one damage down and lifted another card, Ume gasped upon seeing the card glitter, "W-wait, this is…" Aichi trailed of looking at the card with such a beautiful female on it, "Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine!" Kai spoke with amazement.

"What is that?" Morikawa cried out, dumbfounded.

Ume smiled brightly and placed her hands together in front of her chest, "Elaine is a healing card, she removes one damage from the damage bar as long as you have more damage than the other player! She is such a beautiful card…" she hummed softly and found herself blushing when Aichi turned to look at her once more.

"Then that means?" he asked slowly and she nodded,

"You're still in the battle, Aichi-kun."

Aichi nods his head and looks back at Kai, "My turn…" he mumbled softly to him and draw a card.

Morikawa grinned, "Aichi's turn. Kai has five damage, one more hit and Aichi wins!" he chuckled to himself, Taishi looks between the two boys, "it's to close to call. Kai's such a good player that you never know what's going to happen."

"I don't believe any of the things you said to me earlier." Aichi spoke, looking at the card he had just drawn,

"Oh yeah?" Kai said in surprise, looking up at the boy,

"You expect me to believe that you only gave me this card so you could bully me later? If that is the case then I don't think this card would have made me become stronger or have given me the courage that it did." Aichi smiled and shook his head when the brunette snorted, "No. No matter what you say. Blaster Blade has been really important to me and that will never change. I'll always remember how pathetic I must have been, but you was kind enough to give me this card, and because of that I really looked up to you. My memory tells me the truth." he says softly and holds the card up, "I can picture how this battle is going to end. I can picture my Blaster Blade and how he's going to lead the way to victory!"

Ume gasped, the boy looked as if he was glowing a bright blue colour and swiftly a flash of a boy with amour appeared over him. She shook her head, believing that she is just seeing things, "I call Elaine. I support Elaine with Pongal! And I attack your Dragonic Overlord!" Aichi yelled out, Kai quickly blocked the attack with a Tahr, Ume gasped loudly her hands pressed against her chest with wide eyes, she felt herself swelling with amazement while everyone began to cheer on Aichi. Ume was surprised to find Misaki had came over to see how this will end.

"This is it!" Aichi breathed, turning his Wingal onto its side, "I attack you with Blaster Blade!"

"I guard with Tahr!" Kai yelled, holding another Tahr out. Ume stared wide eye at the small bluenette, she heard him mumbled a soft 'please' underneath his breath and reached out to pick up a card, "I check for a drive trigger!" he called out, clenching his eyes closed and slowly looking at the card and gasped upon seeing the card, Ume's eyes widen upon the card, "attack trigger activated! Rising the attack by 5000 and adding 1 damage." Ume gasped out.

"That attack has been to much from my Dragonic Overload. I am now a spirit again. I have…lost…"

"Then that means-" Taishi added in, throwing his arms over Ume's shoulders and leaning over her to get a better look at the mat. Ume's face bust with happiness.

"Aichi-kun wins!" she squealed, suddenly running forward and without thinking, throwing her arms around the bluenette shoulders, knocking both down to the ground. Because the black haired girl had moved, Taishi tumbled to the ground also, "You did it Aichi-kun!" Ume beamed at him to which the boy returned it with his own smile.

Taishi pushed himself up and looked over the table at the blue haired boy, "Dude! You did it!"

Ume and Aichi pushed themselves up to their knees when the brunette stood up, holding his deck. He smirked down at the raven head boy and snapped his fingers down at him, "looks like it was your card after all." he said, turning around with his hands in his pockets, "Hey Kai! Thanks a lot!" Aichi called out, watching as the brunette walked towards the sliding doors.

"Hey! Wait up!" Taishi yelled, running after the brunette. Aichi smiled brightly as the two boys left the store and turned his head around and looked directly at Ume, "I remember you, Ume Hikari. We used to play together in middle school after you transferred into our school, that was a year after Kai gave me Blaster Blade." Ume blinks her eyes, her heart thumped loudly and she panicked that maybe the boy could hear her heard thumping. It is then that she realized she is still pressed against the boy. Staring blankly ahead, it slowly began to come together in her head of what she had just done, her face turning redder and redder as the images flashes in her mind.

"Ah! Ume-chan. You are going a bit red, are you getting sick?" Aichi asked, worrid. and moved to touch her forehead when Ume let out a sudden squeal and leaped to her feet, she ran towards Misaki and hid behind her, "I'm…I'm fine…" she squealed embarrassingly, waving her hand out from behind Misaki who had a pleased smile on her face, filled with amusement.

"How embarrassing!"

~#~#~

Ume walked down the long high-school halls the next day. Even after the whole night, her heart is still thumping at least her face had cooled down to a soft pink colour. She clenched the books tightly to her chest as she almost ran down the hallway, it is the end of the day and she just wanted to go home and hide underneath her bed again like she did last night. Her face had turned into a tomato and her younger brother had stood in the doorway with a confused face. Now he won't let that go either, he'll hold it over her.

Swiftly, she turned to walk down another hallway when she saw Izaki and Morikawa walking down the hallways, talking about going to Card Capital, "Morikawa!" a familiar voice cried out, Ume found herself shudder at the voice, her face turned red as Aichi ran towards the two boys.

"What do you want?" Morikawa asked, eyeing the boy.

Aichi breathed deeply, he looked as if he is gathering up as more courage as possible, "I was wondering if y-you and I could have a-a vanguard battle, sometime?"

"You wanna beat me too, huh?" Morikawa asked with a large grin and Aichi shook his head, his blue eyes lowering shyly, "I'm still really new to Vanguard, I was hoping you c-could play me and m-maybe teach me a couple of things…" he asked, hopeful. Ume thought Morikawa was going to accept it, he looked happy about being a teacher before the girl glared at him, "I don't want to waste my time teaching a shrimp like you how too swim."

"O-Okay….thanks…"

"Man. Kai's so lame. He acts like a big shot but then he goes and loses to a rookie like Aichi!" Morikawa laughed, "I wouldn't be surprised if he never shows his face again in the store."

Ume rolled her eyes, she had seen Morikawa play. He was far from perfect at this game, he is no way near as good as Kai is, "It should be the other way around! Aichi-kun should teach him how to swim!" she pouted to herself, unaware that she had just spoken out loud. When she looked up once more, she frowned with concern, "Where'd he go?" she thought, looking around for the bluenette and pouted. Running her fingers through her long hair, she began to walk from the school.

"Misaki! I've come again!" Ume greeted, entering the waving her hand up happily at the woman, while entering.

"Welcome back Ume." Misaki hummed, turning the page of her book, she eyed the happy-go-lucky girl who played with the little cat, "Aichi's here. He's been here for awhile. Waiting for you and the other two boys."

Ume blinks and lifted her head with wide eyes, her cheeks turned pink and she looked down at the tables to find Aichi alone. He looked so sad, looking down at the table as he sat. Blinking, she walked towards him and stood to his side, "Are you waiting for the three from yesterday?" she asked softly, wondering if the boy is really waiting for herself, Kai and Taishi. Aichi nods his head without looking up, he didn't realize that it is Ume, one of the three he is waiting for. He thought it must have been Misaki.

"Yeah, I'm hoping…we could be friends…but….they probably hates me now anyway…they won't turn up…nobody ever likes me…"

Ume's eyes soften, she breathed deeply feeling sadden herself. She lifted her head up, "I wouldn't be so sure about that." she grinned.

Aichi turn his own head up and gasped upon seeing the girl, "U-Ume-chan!" he gasped, his blue eyes widening as she smiled brightly, "and I'm not alone!" she cheered loudly, throwing her hand towards the door in time for Kai and Taishi walk through the doors.

"Hey there little red riding hood!" Taishi grinned at Ume who pouted and crossed her arms.

"Why do you keep calling me that! I have black hair Blondie!" she snapped, Aichi laughed at her while the two boys walked to the table.

"Ha! You don't remember? When I first met you, I tried to talk to you, the more I tried, the more you hid behind a book. That book? Little Red Riding Hood!" he smirked, poking the girl in the forehead. Ume pouts and rubbed her forehead with narrowed eyes. Okay. So she doesn't remember that, but still, Little Red Riding Hood? Come on!

"Hey there, Aichi, Ume. Glad to see you guys." Kai spoke, walking up the table with his hands in his pockets, Taishi looked at Aichi and poked him on the forehead too, "Hey there new-guy!" Aichi blushes, he nervously shakes and looks at the three around him and smiles at them.

"I was…hoping that…"

Taishi grins wider at his new timid friend, "Say no more! How about you play me today?" he asked when the doors opened once more and Morikawa with Izaki cut in, "no way! I've got dibs on that small fry!" he cheered before noticing Kai and gasping loudly who tilted his head.

"What's the matter?"

Ume grinned, her eyes flashing, "pay back!" she thought to herself and walking up next to Kai, she leant forward with her arms behind her back, "Morikawa was saying today that you wouldn't ever show your face in this store again!"

"U-Ume!" Morikawa gasped, looking at the girl.

Taishi bust into laughter, holding his stomach, "So good! Did you seriously think we wouldn't come back after yesterday?"

"What are you doing back here?!"

_"These days, Card games are becoming apart of our lifes… the biggest game so far is Vanguard! And now…"_ Aichi thought, looking at the five teenagers around him, he smiled at the cat that rubbed up against his leg and bent down to pet him.

"_I don't think I'll ever be alone again! I never thought a game would change my life forever! I really am lucky!"_

* * *

**_Well? What do you think? Is it alright or plain bad? I hope to hear from you soon!_**

**_Don't forget to REVIEW, FAVORUITE AND FOLLOW_**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Hey everyone. This chapter has been re-done. Beta-corrected. Yay the others will come along soon. **_

_**Couples-AichiXOC and KaiXOC**_

_**TaishiXOC and ShinXOC - Sibling. Brother and Sister**_

_**I am a rookie at writing. Please do tell me if I've wrote something wrong, I will fix it as soon as I see your message^^**_

_**A big fat thank you to my lovely beta, StuffStuff! Thank you so much^^**_

_**Enjoy**_

* * *

Chapter 2

The dark haired girl breathed deeply, she ran as fast as she could, "Late! Late!" she wheezed out.

She had been late to school and now she was going to be late to Card Capital. Aichi, Morikawa and Izaki had waited for her; the dark haired boy had ended up yelling from the gates of the school for her to hurry her 'pretty' little ass up. Ume had snapped after about ten minutes and screamed at the top of her lungs for him to 'fuck off' and that she would meet them later. Right now, Ume is regretting that. The girl had been determine to finish her math work, embarrassingly, she sucked at math, but she was working so hard to improve.

Clenching her eyes close, the green eyed girl spun around a corner and almost tripped over her feet as she moved to run up the road. Ume breathed a breath of relief upon seeing the sign of Card Capital, "YES! I MADE IT!" she cheered, running into the store and fell against the counter, out of breath, "M-Misaki! I'm dying!" she wheezed out, trying to catch her breath.

Misaki looked up from the new book she is reading, her eyes flashes as she looked at the red faced girl, "Please die outside the store. It will be bad for our repetition." she spoke emotionless. Her eyes then turned back to the book.

"….love you too Misaki." Ume grunted, glaring at the woman. Misaki smirked at her, giving a helpless shrug.

"Ume~ You came to see me again~" a voice sang out and the young dark haired girl lifted her head in time to have a pair of arms wrap around her shoulder and hugged her tightly. Ume yelped in surprise, her body arched as she is smoothed against a brotherly chest, "S-Shin! C-Can't breathe…" she squealed, struggling against Misaki's uncle.

Shin Nitta, he is the man who owns the store. He has messy green hair with large square classes which hides his eyes and pale skin that would burn easily underneath the sun. Most of the time, the man is seen in a high collar shirts with white sweaters and skinny-jeans. Today he wore the exact clothing with an apron over it. Hearing the girls please, the male finally removed his arms from her person and allowed her to stumble back would with a massive grin.

"Do you want to buy more cards today? Or are you just here to watch the Vanguard battles again?" he asked with a goofy smile.

Ume breathed deeply, leaning over with her hands on her knees. She looked at Shin with a small frown and wondered how somebody as thin as he is could give bone-crushing hugs.

Before Ume could even utter a word the sliding doors behind her slid open and she felt a gush of air run up her body, giving her goose bumps. Shivering, the young dark haired turns her head to see an extremely cute little girl appeared. She looked like something straight out of a fairy book with short blonde hair that brushes against her shoulders and makes her bright blue eyes sparkle. Her tiny person is covered in the private school uniform, the dark blue and red school uniform, her hair is covered by a matching cap that had a red bow on the side. Her wide blue eyes looked around the store, looking as if she had just stepped into another world.

Shin's glasses flashes as he notices her, a new costumer appeared above his head, "Hello there little lady~" he sang happily out, making his way to her. The young ten year-old looked up in surprise.

"Thanks for visiting Card Capital, I'm Shin, the manager of this store. So, how can I help you today?" he asked, bending down. The small girl frowns and looks around the store once more, mumbling out soft words.

Ume smiles softly and walks to her, she couches down and the young blonde girl relaxes at seeing a female, "This must be your first time in a card shop. Relax okay. This shop sells TGE. Trading Card Game Products." she explained softly.

The small girl blinks her bright blue eyes with a small troubled frown, "A-ano. What is a trading card game?" she asked confused and Ume simply patted her on the head.

"A trading card game is where you collect cards to play with your friends. This store get's pretty busy once school's out."

"Hey! I know that uniform, you go to that private middle school!" Shin spoke proudly, waving his hand around with a goofy smile, "If I could get you interested in trading card games, it could spread throughout your school!" he spoke happily and Ume ducked her head with a groan.

"All about the money with you Shin!" she snorted to herself and shook her head. Ume looks back at the girl and hums, "Hey. Do you want me to show you around? We girls we'll leave the manager in his money dream." Ume joked, winking at the small blonde who smiled brightly. Strangely the smile reminded her of another smile she loved to see.

"Yes please!" the young girl spoke hopefully.

Ume nods her head; she stands straight and dusts of her skirt, "The staff normally hangs out around the counter. If you need anything you can talk to them. This is Misaki. Don't get scared, her face is always like that." Ume laughed, the little blonde giggled and nodded, especially when Misaki gave them a look and made a soft 'haha'.

"The sleeping one, is the Sis-Cat." Ume explained, reaching out to touch the sleeping black cat who opened his blue eyes and let out a soft 'meow' yawn.

"This is our most popular product. Right now, it is called Cardfight Vanguard!" Shin popped up next to the girl placed a green booster pack in her hands.

The black haired girl sighed while looking at Shin when she felt her school shirt being tugged on lightly, looking down at the little girl who stared at the small area filled with tables that held many students, playing card games.

"Oh…those are the game tables, people come here to compete." Ume explained, turning her body fully and gasped, "Oh Aichi-kun won again. Poor Morikawa, he's never going to win." she sighed, shaking her head.

Tugging on her backpack straps, the girl looked up at Ume with wide blue eyes, "Aichi-kun? You know Aichi?" she asked her voice loud and smooth. Ume returned her gaze to the girl and nodded with light red cheeks, "Hmm, we're friends back at school." she admitted and the little blonde stared up with hard blue eyes, a look of understanding flashes across her face.

"You like him." she stared with her own knowing smile and Ume found herself going red in the face and she tried to stutter out words. Seeing this, the little girl giggled and held her finger to her lips, "I won't tell." she winked back up at Ume and the black haired girl felt as if the ten year is acting very old for her age, it isn't surprising thought she goes to that private school. The same school her younger brother goes to.

Giggling, the little blonde grabbed Ume's hand and dragged her down towards the table where Aichi and Morikawa are battling at.

"Emi!" Aichi gasped upon seeing the little blonde walking towards them.

"You know each other?" Shin asked, looking at the little blond. Ume looked down at Emi, still holding her hand and then back at the bluenette who stared at them with wide eyes, "o-oh…w-well sir…Emi is my l-little sister."

"Sister?" Ume repeated, looking down at Emi who smiled back at her, "Emi….sister…" she mumbled, eyes widening as she stumbled backwards with a black cloud appearing over, "Aichi-kun's sister knows…that…I…" she whispered to herself, wobbling on the spot.

Emi's eyes flashes, she looks at her older brother with a crooked smile, "So you've been getting home late because you've been playing card games." she asked softly, looking down at the cards with wide eyes, she quickly leant over the table and picked up one of the cards and held it up to her face, she frowned and looked up at Ume, "Is this Vanguard?" she questioned and Ume, who had been drowning in her depression, snapped out of it and nodded.

"…I like the pictures." Emi spoke, looking at the other card, "Blaster Blade. This is what you've been up too…" she trailed off and looked at the cards on the mat before turning her head to look at the boy.

"You know what? I think you've changed. Is it really that fun to play?" Emi stared blankly at her brother as he nodded; her eyes looked at the two boys and then the beautiful girl standing next to her. Aichi, is he really coming out of his shell? "Aichi! Will you play again so I can watch?" Emi finally asked, smiling at the surprised bluenette, "It's fun right? So hurry and fight again."

"Err, well…I?" Aichi trailed off, looking at Morikawa who grinned and cheered loudly, throwing his fist into the air.

"Yeah! Come on! This could be my epic comeback!"

The little blonde girl looked between the boys and noticed the happy expression on the bluenette. She noticed this is the first time she had seen Aichi generally happy. The expression on her older brother made her smile brighter, Emi looked around at the other teenagers and sighed, "Thrash him." she encouraged Aichi who smiled brightly and turned to face Morikawa.

"Let's do this! I'll take you and your cheerleaders on!" Morikawa laughed loudly, gathering his cards up, Ume frowned and asked herself if Morikawa really just called her a cheerleaders.

"Stand up! My Avatar!"

~#~#~#~

"Having a good time?" Shin asked, sitting behind the counter on Saturday morning with Sis-Cat snuggled up in his lap. Aichi gently laid his cards out along the table in front of the counter; his blue eyes sparkled as he looked up with a smile.

"Yeah." he nodded happily. Today, instead of his grey uniform he had dressed himself in a pair of skinny-blue jeans with an allow length blue jacket and a red turtle-neck sweater underneath. Shin tilts his head with a mystery smile.

"Ah. Because when you came in, you looked pretty sad like a girl had stood you up."

"W-What!" Aichi squealed, his face turning red and his cards bouncing across the floor. Gasping, the bluenette quickly moved to pick them up, "n-no. I…I thought I had seen Kai, Taishi and Ume is all…" he admitted shyly.

Shin hummed and tilted his head back, "Now you mention it. All three of them I haven't seen recently. Ume hasn't come back in a while, and with Kai, we can't really say with the kid. Taishi never comes in on Fridays anyway so it wasn't a surprise about yesterday." he spoke with a matter-of-fact tone, "why are you so desperate to see them anyway?"

Aichi blinks his bright sparkling eyes and looks down, his face turning a dusty pink colour with a small frown, "…w-well…I-I was h-hoping that…that we all could have a vanguard battle again! Like that day! We all h-had so much fun…" he smiled hopefully, "the first time Kai and I battled, I couldn't help but feel he was holding back because I was new. Since that day, I've had a bunch of other battles and I know the rules pretty well and I'm having a lot of fun now too. Plus, I might just be a little better than I was. So I want to fight Kai again and show him that he doesn't have to take it easy on me."

"I think I just saw a twinkle in your eye!" Shin chuckled, touching his classes lightly, they flashed wickedly in the light, "That is how it is with all new players. You're having so much fun playing you don't even care if you win or lose. You must really love being with the three of them, huh?" the green man commented, watching with a friendly smile when Aichi flushes and ducks his head, "May I see your deck?" he asked, standing up and Sis-Cat squealed loudly and dig his paws into his arm before leaping onto the counter.

The young blue haired boy blinks his eyes and nods his head slowly, "oh…sure…" he mumbles softly and hands his deck out to the taller man. He watches as Shin looks through the deck, his chest tightens with worry when the man swiftly stopped with a troubled frown, "Is…is something w-wrong with my d-deck?" he questioned worriedly.

Shin smiled and shook his head, he hands the deck back with another goofy smile, "here's the plan. Why don't you come back on your way home from school tomorrow? I'll have a surprise waiting for you."

Aichi's lips open a little with disbelief, "R-Really?"

"Yup! But you have to come and get it."

It is Monday afternoon, school has finally let out and Ume walked almost like a zombie down the long road. With her arms stretched out and walking with her legs straight. Her black hair covered her face, hiding her green eyes really helped her spooky appearances. Ume almost ran into something blue. Pulling away with hiss, Ume tilts her head back and allows her short black hair to ruffle backward revealing her green eyes which had black bags underneath, before she could even see who the person is, that person tugged on her nose. Squealing in surprise, Ume throw her arms out, "Oh God! Little Red Riding Hood, what happened to you?" Taishi's amused voice entered the girl's ears.

The little black haired girl glared at the goofy blonde boy, "Thanks." she snorted, slapping the boys hands from her face and rubbed her nose gently, "why are you always so damn happy?" she questioned, obviously not in a good mood.

Ume grunted when Taishi placed his arms over her head and leant on her like a wall, he looked down with a smile, "Ah. Haven't you heard? Everything is made out of rainbows and puppy dog tails." he joked and fake gasping when Ume goggled out a loud 'bullshit' making a clicking sound from his tongue, Taishi shook his head, "Little Red Riding Hood, such language." he purred out, flicking her nose once more. Taishi hummed and rocked her backward until he could clearly see the little girls face, "no but seriously. What's the matter?"

"…Why is God so cruel?" she questioned, her green eyes looking dead. Taishi blinks with a sweat drop on the back of his head, he let out a soft 'wha?'

Ume sniffed and rubbed her eyes, Taishi quickly rubbed her on the back and asked if she was alright, he thought this is serious, "Taishi! I failed my math-test again!" Ume bust out, her eyes widen with tears, the blonde froze and stared blankly at the girl with disbelief.

"You're…you're a cry baby…you know that right?" he asked with a sigh, rubbing the girl on the head.

"Taishi! You're so mean!" Ume shrieked, slapping the boy away from herself. She stepped away with a pout as the blonde laughed and chanced after the sulking girl.

"Come on, Little Red, it's only a test. You can make it up." he chuckled, still clearly amused with the girl. The dark haired girl shook her head with a pout.

"It isn't only a test Taishi! It is math and I suck at math!" she shrieked, tugging on her hair, the blonde simply smirked and shook his head.

"Come on. Card Capital is just a head."

Ume pouts but nods; she trails behind and follows after the taller blonde while grumbling to herself about her test results. God really does hate her. Stupid math. Oh, she really, really hates math. Ume spends nights after nights, endless hours sitting behind math books trying desperately to get better at it, but failing miserably.

"Stupid ass-math" she muttered, looking up with dead eyes at the Card Capital and puffs out her cheeks and enters the store behind Taishi. She stops with confusion upon seeing Misaki and Aichi sitting at a table preparing to play vanguard.

"No way! Shin said all that?" Taishi's voice drawn her attention, turning her head, she looked at the blonde talking with Morikawa. Walking up to them, the dark haired male yelped in surprise at her, "whoa! Ume what happened to you!" he asked, followed by a howl of pain when the shorter female slammed her foot into his, "damn woman!" Morikawa wheezed, hopping around holding his ankle while Taishi burst into laughter.

Ume stared blankly at him before stomping toward Izaki and grabbed him by the arm, "What's going on?" she questioned. The curly brunette blinks his bright amber eyes and looks at the small girl, he held back from commenting on her appearances not wanting to end up like Morikawa.

"Ano. Shin said he had a surprise for Aichi. This turned out be a battle with Misaki. But get this. Misaki has never played the game before!"

Ume blinks her eyes furiously in thought, she had thought Misaki at least played vanguard a few times and it is surprising that she hadn't played the game. Scratching the back of his head, Ume looked back at the two, "yup. That is why he looks so serious." Izaki spoke, crossing his arms over his chest. Taishi hums softly, he walks towards the two with his arms crossed.

"Then what's up with that guy now?" he asked, pointing at Morikawa who is now hunched over with his hands pressed together. Izaki looks at the boy with narrowed eyes and frowns.

"What are you doing?"

"…I can't allow Aichi to get something and I don't….Aichi~ Lose the fight~" Morikawa sang out, his voice hitching as he spoke. Ume growled a little and rammed her foot into his once more and just like before, he began to jump around holding his foot, "UME! THAT HURT!" he shrieked while Taishi lent against the girl with a laugh. He smiled goofy, his eyes sparkles with amusement.

"Little Red Riding Hood, you really are something." he chuckled loudly. Morikawa quickly flipped his legs out and slammed his hands together once more, "Aichi~ Lose the fight~ How dare you hog everything~"

Taishi sighed, he stared at the male, "He really is relentless, isn't he…" he muttered as Ume nodded with a snort.

"He is creepy too." she added, sending hurtful glare at Morikawa, not that she cared of course. She really wasn't in a good mood today.

"So it is this kind of deck…I really need a day off with pay for putting up with Shin's crap." Misaki hisses to herself, her blank eyes looks over at Aichi with annoyances, "let's start." she called out, really wanting to end this game. Aichi quickly nods his head and both began to shovel their cards. Ume winced when Misaki accidentally dropped three of her cards, "Oh. Sorry, let me shuffle my cards again." Misaki says, lifting the cards and began to shovel them once more, "oh...Err…y-yeah…" Aichi mumbled shyly, he then held his deck out to Misaki as she held her deck, "p-please. Cut my d-deck." he spoke gently and Misaki nodded, both of them quickly shuffled the cards and handed the deck back and placed them onto the mat.

Ume watched as both pulled five cards out, she looked between the two with a troubled frown, "Who should I root for?" she sighed to herself, she loved both of them. Yes, she was in love with Aichi, but Misaki was like her amazing older sister. She couldn't root for either. Smiling, she slapped her hands together, "Go for it Misaki. You can do it Aichi-kun." she sang out while the other boys around her sweat dropped. Taishi shrugged, running his hand through is hair.

"Well…that is one way to do it."

"You have to picture it." Aichi spoke softly. Misaki nodded and closed her eyes while both reached out to touch their face-downed cards, "Stand up! My avatar!"

Misaki flipped her card, Ume swore the same blast of light erupted from the card, this time it is green instead of red, "Lozenge Magus!" Misaki said softly, Aichi nodded and flipped his own card and once again a blast of blue erupted from the card.

"Stardust trumpeter!" he called out and Misaki looks up. The lavender head girl takes the top card of her deck.

"I'll take first turn. Okay? I ride the Oracle Guardian, Gemini. And I use the effect of Lozenge Magus to slide her into the rear guard."

"She is such a rookie. Check it out guys!" Izaki laughed before gasping when Misaki looked at them with narrowed eyes.

"Don't make me come over there." Ume looks at the boy and watches as they all stood straight and mutters out a 'I'm sorry ma'am'

The young woman rolls her eyes and looks at Aichi, "It's your turn." she comments emotionless. The bluenette nods his head and takes another card; he places it into his hand and scans them, "Ride! Little sage Marron!" he called out, placing the card down, "and I call Wingal and Flogal. I support Wingal with Flogal and attack your Gemini!"

"I check for a damage trigger." Misaki mutters, lifting the top card of her deck and places it into her damage zone, "Next, I attack Gemini with Marron." Aichi spoke, his eyes burning determine and checks for a drive trigger, he smiles happily as he gets one and boosts Marron's attack points from 8000 to 13000, "try this one. Marron gets a 5000 bonus attack points. Thanks to this trigger card, the damage goes up by one more!" The lavender head woman tilts her head, still looking half bored, "another two damage I believe? Then I can check for two damage triggers. I checking the first card, I got it. Draw trigger."

Aichi frowns, "A draw trigger?" he asked, looking at the woman who nods in agreement.

"It allows me to draw an extra card." Misaki explains and picks up another card and places it within her hand, "Now, checking for another trigger card. Draw trigger again." Aichi watches as Misaki takes another card from her deck, he frowns deeper.

"The ability to draw extra cards? Is that really helpful?" he thought with confusion.

"That's three damage on his first turn." Taishi mumbled as Izaki nodded in agreement, "yeah. That is a great way to start the game." both boys suddenly jump startled when Morikawa pushes between them with narrowed red eyes, "Curses his good luck! He must lose~ Alright!"

Aichi laughs nervously with a sweat drop on the side of his head, he stutters out words, while Misaki looks down in annoyances.

"Ume?" she growls out and the black haired girl grins. She hums and looks at the man with dark eyes; "With pleasure." she purrs and rams her foot straight into Morikawa's once again, Ume then turns back around blankly ignoring the boy's howls of pain.

Misaki nods and turns her attention back to the game; she lifts another card, "My turn now. I ride the Maiden of Libra and I call two, silences Toms." placing three cards on the mat, one of which over her vanguard's card. She then turns one of the silences Toms on its side, "I attack Marron with Silences Tom." Aichi looks down at his cards, "I guard the attack with Flogal." he speaks and moves to use the card when Misaki stopped him, "huh? No that won't work. Silences Tom's skill prevents that. A grade zero card cannot guard against it." she smiles, gently tapping the card, "Too bad, oh, it also adds another damage."

Aichi frowns and almost looks to be in pain. Ume shudders as her ears rings from gun-shots, she rubes them gently, watching the bluenette places two cards in his damage bar, "So there are cards you can't guard against. Misaki may haven't fought before, but she sure knows what she is doing…I need to be more careful."

"What a strong unit…" Taishi mumbled, leaning against Ume once more to gaze at the game. Morikawa, still jumping around holding his foot suddenly stopped and looked at the mat before jumping forward, his fists shaking in excitement.

"You go girl! Destroy that little wimp!"

Misaki glared at him, snapping her head around in annoyances once more, "Get a life! I'm fighting here! Ume!" she called out, but before the young black haired girl could do anything, Morikawa stepped back, "no-no. I'll be good!"

Aichi looks at his damage, he frowns and looks at Misaki's, "At least I'm still in the lead in the way of damage." he thought to himself, looking at his deck and picked up another card.

Ume blinks her eyes at the expression that crossed his face; she smiled lightly knowing that expression, "So he's got Blaster Blade." she thought to herself, watching as the boy places the card over Marron, "Rise my Avatar now! My Blaster Blade!" Ume found her cheeks turning a little pink, whenever Aichi played Vanguard, it looked as if somebody else has taken his place, "You won't be able to hide from this!" he said, flipping two of his damage cards over, "Paying two damage cards, I can retire one of your silences Toms!" he spoke mighty and Misaki placed the card in the drop zone, "Good! That's one down! I call upon Flogal and Gallatin. I use Gallatin to attack your Maiden of Libra!"

"I guard with Godhawk, Ichibyoshi, who proudly disagrees!" she speaks, placing that card into her own drop-slot. Aichi turns his Flogal card to the side, "next I support Blaster Blade with Flogal and attack your vanguard! Drive check!" he speaks and frowns disappointedly at the card before placing it into his hand, "you sure like attacking! Draw trigger! I draw another card thanks to you. Hmm. Big mistake!" Misaki speaks; greatly pleased with the card she had just drawn. Aichi turns his Wingal card next, "I support Wingal with Flogal and attack your silences Tom! Alright! Both Silences Toms are in the drop zone!"

Smirking, Misaki shook her head, "I wouldn't celebrate yet." she says with a mystery glint in her bright blue eyes and picks up another card, "we're just getting started." she says, Aichi gasps in surprises. Ume watches with awe as the card Misaki held up bust with green, glimmering light, a lot like the card Kai had drawn only Kai's card was on fire. Quickly checking to see if anybody else saw, she isn't sure why nobody saw Kai's anyway and just like she thought, nobody saw Misaki's either, "beautiful goddess of radiant light, ride CEO Amaterasu!"

"Whoa! Grade three! I think Aichi's in trouble…" Izaki mumbled softly, his amber eyes sparkled with worry. Morikawa grinned, throwing his arms up with his eyes sparkling, "one of the strongest cards in the game! A grade three!" Taishi tilts his head, he hums with his arms crossed over Ume's head and his head rested against the arms, "gee, you really like grade threes. Don't you." he chuckled, eyeing the boy from the corner of his eye. Morikawa smirks and crosses his arms over his chest, "of cause. They're strong. Like me." The blonde burst into laughter, "Yeah right!"

Blue eyes shimmering, Aichi stared at the card on the mat, "A grade three?" he wondered out loud, "Amaterasu's special ability means I can take the top card of my deck and add it to her soul stack. And now, I can look at the top card of my deck."

Aichi frowns, "I looks at the top of my deck, then I can leave it on top or at the bottom of the deck." she says with a smug look on her face. Aichi pouts in thought, he shook his head.

"How does that e-exactly help you?" he asks softly watching at the lavender head woman lift the card and look at it.

"Oh you'll see." she frowns upon seeing the card, "I don't need this." she says and places it at the bottom of her deck, "I call out two Oracle Guardian, Wiseman and the Oracle Guardian, Red Eye." Misaki says, placing the three cards down on the mat. Aichi watches with narrowed eyes as Misaki turns a card on the side, "I attack Blaster Blade with Wiseman." Aichi gasps and quickly holds a card out, "I guard!" he says and places the card into the drop zone, "now I attack with another Wiseman supported with Gemini!" Aichi quickly picks up the top card of his deck, "I'll do a damage check! Great! It is a heal trigger! As you know Elaine's effect allows me to recover one damage from the bar."

"Uh-uh! You can't!" Misaki says emotionless making the younger boy jump in surprise, "The heal effect only happens if you have more damage than your opponent. As you can see, I have four and you have three." Aichi lets out a sound of frustration and looked at both damage zones.

"Oh no! What a waste!"

"This girl knows more about these cards and rules then us guys. And it's her very first fight."

Misaki looks at them, her eyes soften a little as she spoke, "I spend eight hours a day in this shop watching you guys play. I pretty much had to learn them. And besides, I need to know the rules to help customers."

"I see. So that explains why you're so good at it Misaki." Aichi breathes out and closes his eyes, "But, I still gain an effect from that trigger! Blaster Blades power goes up by 5000!" Misaki looks at the cards; her gaze remained nonchalant.

"I attack Blaster Blade with Amaterasu. You see my vanguard has twin drive. All grade threes have a special ability called twin drive. Instead of drawing one drive trigger, you draw two. First check? No. Second check? No." she says and places the cards into her hand and looks at Aichi with a small smirk, "Why do you look so relieved? Amaterasu has another little ability. If I have at least four cards in my hand, her power goes up by 4000." Aichi's eyes widen before narrowing,

"I see. So that's why your deck has so many draw triggers. You were activating Amaterasu's ability."

Misaki's eyes flashes, cunningly "A bit late for that realization." she says and watches as the boy places another card down into his damage zone.

"I need…to get myself a copy of that grade three!" Morikawa purred out, staring at the card as if it was a big piece of meat. Aichi gulped and draws another card.

"My turn now. I'll have Wingal and Flogal switch places! Then I retire Flogal and call in Gallatin! Gallatin attacks your vanguard!" he calls out and Misaki shrugs with a soft 'whatever' Aichi looked at her damage zone and breathes in deeply, "almost there…Now! I have Flogal support Blaster Blade to attack your Amaterasu!"

Misaki smirks and holds up a card, "I guard! I activate her ability! Now, I send an Oracle to the drop zone to cancel your attack. That attack is over. My card hits the drop zone…"

Aichi breathes deeply, he narrows his eyes down at the card game, "I check for a drive trigger." he says and lifts up the top card of his deck and smiles, "That's an extra 5000 attack points added onto Gallatin. Now I support him with the power of Wingal and attack your vanguard!" he says and frowns when Misaki guards it with the same card, "No way…"

Misaki hums and lifts another card and looks at it, "Let's finish it. I active Amaterasu's special ability and place another card into her soul stack." she spoke and placed another card underneath Amaterasu's card, "I then check the top card. Hmm. That one is useless. I then call magical kid and Coco. Coco is another unit that allows me to take a look at the top card of my deck. Hmm, that can stay." Misaki smiles and looks at her monster cards, "I support Wiseman with the power of Magical kid and attacks Blaster Blade. "She says and ignores Aichi's guards, "I support Wiseman with Gemini, attack." Misaki narrows her eyes, Aichi guards once more, "Amaterasu now has the power of Coco and is now attacking your vanguard."

"Amaterasu?" Aichi repeats to himself and gasps, "I'm out of cards!" Misaki smiles at him.

"Now, for my twin drive." she says and picks up a card, "Let's see. Look, this is it. The purpose of checking the top card of my deck is to set myself up for a drive trigger, so I could use it against you at a time like this. Drive Trigger activated. Amaterasu gains 5000 more attack points and also adds your damage up by one more. Second check. No trigger. But Amaterasu's power is already more than enough. 22000. This is the power of grade three units!"

"So if you're deck doesn't have anything better than a grade two unit, well? You're doomed to fail."

Taishi smiled, "Good game." he commented while Morikawa stared with big red eyes.

"It worked…he lost…" Morikawa mumbled while Izaki looked at him with a frown.

Ume breathed deeply; she closed her eyes with her arms crossed tightly over her chest. She smiles to herself and walks from Taishi; he almost stumbled to the ground once more but is able to stand himself up right. Knowing she would have walked away. Ume made her way towards the depressed Aichi and gently placed her hand upon his shoulder, "Aichi-kun. All you need is grade three cards in your deck. Blaster Blade isn't enough on his own."

"So you lost to Misaki. Did you learn anything?" Shin asked, popping up next to them, he looked down at Aichi who sighs pleasantly.

"Yes, I did. I saw there are still a lot of things I've got to learn. Vanguard is much more complex and more difficult than I thought."

"That is the special thing I wanted you to see with your own eyes. We all started like you, you know. We're all so eager to play in the game, but yet only knowing a bit about it. That's not how you get better. And you're not going to beat Kai that way, are you? Glad you saw it, that is a big step today. If you have questions about cards, I'll be happy to answer for you."

Ume smirked; she crossed her arms once more, "As long as he keeps playing here, right?"

"You caught me Ume."

"_Thank you." Aichi bowed down lowly. "Grade threes. And all the cards I've never seen. I want to know more about Vanguard. And get stronger, so the next time I face Kai…."_

* * *

**_Well? What do you think? Is it alright or plain bad? I hope to hear from you soon!_**

**_Don't forget to REVIEW, FAVORUITE AND FOLLOW_**


	3. Chapter 3

_**Thank you ******__PhantomEV021, Rolo-chan, Akihiro1123, 4fireking _ for reading and reviewing^^ I hope you'll stick with me. 

_**I am a rookie at writing. Please do tell me if I've wrote something wrong, I will fix it as soon as I see your message^^**_

_**A big fat thank you to my lovely beta, StuffStuff! Thank you so much^^**_

_**Enjoy**_

* * *

Chapter 3

"Oh. I'm for real! Hmm-Hmm. Well, you could say that this guy right here is the general real automobile. I'm young, cool and I am number 1!"

"Automobile…what?" Ume blinks, peering through the glass slide doors of Card Capital. Tugging lightly on a lock of black hair in front of her face, she stepped into the store still in her grey and white uniform. Her dark green eyes scanned around the store, she frowned noticing the store is packed. Her attention is drawn towards a group of people around a table, she noticed half of the crowd are off young children, she noticed in the middle of the crowd stood Morikawa and Izaki, "what did they do this time?"

"Ume-chan," Jumping in surprise, Ume blushed and smiled at the bluenette boy standing next to her, also in his school uniform. His bright blue eyes sparkles as they looked at the girl, "Good morning." he greeted happy to see her, the words made Ume blush deeper and she shyly greeted him back.

"You're the best Kamui! CS!" A soft voice had drawn the two young teenagers back to the crowed. Ume blinks her eyes and looked at the small boy grinning up at Morikawa, the small boy is adorable in her opinion. Well, in Ume's opinion she found all young children adorable. He had spiky raven hair with a cute small pony tail at the back of his neck, a pair of bright crimson eyes sparkles with mystery, he had tan skin with an orange long-sleeved shirt, long jeans and a red body warmer.

"CS?" Morikawa repeated. The raven haired boy had two other children on both sides off him, one had short grey hair pulled up into a high pony-tail showing his bright blue eyes, while the other child had long dark blue hair with classes, "Crazy strong!" the grey haired boy grinned, making Kamui grin wider with glee. The other small child looked at Morikawa, his glasses flashed brightly.

"This guy really seems like a BH to me. Right guys?" He asked and the two boys laughed in agreement.

"BH?" Morikawa mumbled in thought, his own red eyes sparkled brightly, "butt-head?" he wondered out loud and howled at them with angry eyes, "Why you brats!"

Aichi tilts his head, his blue eyes soften, "hey, Ume-chan…you think he is strong as Kai?" he questioned the girl softly, said girl frowns and looks down. Her eyes widens upon seeing the damage bar of Kamui, he only had two cards. Aichi breathed deeply with determination and looked at Kamui.

"Hey? W-Will you have a battle with me next?"

Kamui looks at Aichi; he frowns with confusion and walks towards them. Ume bit back a smile at the expression on his face, the kid turns out to be almost the same height of them, almost reaching their shoulders.

"Who are you?" he asked and frowned deeper when the bluenette spoke his name gently.

"Aichi…Sendou?" he repeats slowly, his red eyes scans over the older boy before shaking his head.

"You're weak, I'm strong. No thanks bro! I can always tell who is strong and who isn't, I draw the line upon beating up babys."

"That's because I've only just started playing Vanguard….I don't even have any grade threes…" Aichi mumbled softly, almost depressingly. Ume snaps out of her daze and turns around, she walks towards the counter and looks down at Asis-Cat sleeping while Misaki sat, almost finishing the book she had.

"Even with grade threes I would destroy you. Ba-by!" the young boys voice echoed out, looking over her shoulder, Ume watched in surprise when Morikawa throw his arm out with his eyes closed tightly.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of this for you. Morikawa! The number one player in Card Capital! I'm challenging you to a battle! And if I win, you have to respect me!"

Ume groans, she allows her head to flop forward with a sweat drop, "Sounds good to me! If I win, you have to do the same."

Ume rolls her eyes, handing a yen-dollar out to Misaki who took it without looking up. Once she had what she wanted, the young girl walked back to the crowd and rolled her eyes once more, "…he'll lose…" she grumbled, stopping next to Aichi who pouted.

"…well…there's a first f-for everything…r-right?" he whispered to her, staring at her with bright blue eyes and Ume shrugged helplessly making the boy smile warmly at her.

"I…lost…" Morikawa groaned, falling over the table with dramatic eyes. Ume hummed and smiled at Aichi, she shrugged once more.

"See told yah so~" she sang out. Aichi blushed and chuckled, he rubbed the back of his head timidly.

"Kamui is s-seriously…g-good…" he commented on the young grade schooler.

Looking at Kamui, Ume noticed the boy had a gleeful expression on his face, loving the fact everyone is praising him. He suddenly snapped out of the daze and looked at Morikawa with large red eyes, "So, were you bluffing or something? About being the best in the store? You're the worst player I have ever beaten. You lost! So show me some respect, loser!" Kamui grinned, making an expression with his fingers stretched out.

Morikawa smirked widely, his eyes glowed almost evilly, "I did say that…Mister Shrimp!"

"So? Are you buying cards? You might get lucky this time." Misaki spoke, walking up behind Aichi and Ume. Both turned to look at her, she glowed from the sun behind her. Misaki smirked down at them with a knowing look on her face.

Aichi smiled warmly and nodded, "Yeah! I h-haven't got a grade three y-yet. Maybe I'll get o-one today." Ume smiled brightly and pulled out a booster pack she had brought, the packet is a deep blue colour with white strips. She ran her fingers over the rubber before looking at Aichi.

"Aichi-kun. Here, I ordered this packet from America. It finally came today. Maybe there is a grade three inside."

With large round eyes, Aichi gasped. His heart thumped and his eyes sparkled, "W-what? Ume-chan, I c-can't take this. It m-must have cost a l-lot!" he squealed out, tugging on his sweater. Ume shook her head with a loving smile and held it out to him.

"I ordered it because I know you're having no such luck with the booster packs around here." she hummed gently to which Aichi stares back with surprise. After a couple of seconds he smiles brightly and warmly, he gently takes the special booster pack and held it to his chest.

"Thank you so much Ume-chan!"

"Aichi!" a voice suddenly snapped, making both the teenagers jump in surprise. They looked down and gasped upon seeing the familiar small blonde head girl glaring up at them, "Emi?" Ume frowned in confusion and looked at the 'hand in the cookie jar' expression on Aichi's face, her lips made a 'O' shape before she laughed.

"You forgot to help her with her homework…again.." she spoke amused, Aichi blushed and ducked his head with embarrassment while Emi nodded her head and crossed her arms. "Yes! It was a promise!" She pouted sadly, Ume gently patted her one the head, "Okay. I'll help you." she winked at Emi who gasped and smiled brightly up at her, "Kay!"

Aichi blushes deeper in embarrassment; he looks at the girls and mumbles out a sorry, "Well? Are you going to open it?" Emi questioned, eyeing the booster pack in his hands. Aichi jumps and looks down at the pack, he gulps and nods his head, with shaky hands he slowly and carefully opened the pack.

"Grade 1...grade 1...grade 2...grade 2..." Aichi whispered and Ume stared with wide eyes, looking at the last card in his hands, the bluenette breathed deeply and flipped the card. Eyes widen, Aichi gasped and held the card up, "Alright! Grade 3, Solitary Knight, Gancelot!"

Morikawa suddenly popped up behind Aichi and throw his arm around the blue haired boy and looked at the card with twinkling eyes, "Now that is a good looking card, I have to order from America…" he purred to himself with a goofy grin.

"Hey that card is a royal paladin, just like your deck. Right?" Misaki asked her large blue eyes half-lidded.

"Yeah!" Aichi nodded excitedly, he looks at the card in his hands. "I finally got one! A grade three!" he smiled happily when suddenly a white paper bag is thrown into his face, his blue eyes widen in surprise, "W-what is this? A paper bag?" he questioned softly, he squealed loudly and almost tumbling backward when it burst, "K-Kamui!"

Kamui looks up at him with narrowed red eyes and throw his finger into Aichi's face, "I challenge you to a duel!" he demeaned bravely, "as it is said in the history books, I challenge you to a duel by slapping you in the face with a white bag!"

"As normally, you've got it wrong. It's a white gauntlet." Misaki groans, rolling her eyes at the small boy who held his deck up with determination clearly seen within his eyes.

"A cardfight! Let's do this!" Aichi blinks with confusion, he pouts and tilts his head.

"I thought…you didn't want to play me…" he questioned softly making the smaller boy duck his head down with his hands in his pocket.

"Yeah well…that was before I saw you with my dream girl!" he yelled out, confusing Aichi even more.

Ume blinks with a small frown, Emi looks up at her and then back at Aichi with her own frown, "Has Aichi hung out with anyone recently?" she asked Ume who shook her head.

"No…but Kamui said he wouldn't battle him just half an hour ago…his dream girl?" Ume frowned deeper, feeling disappointment appear in the pit of his stomach.

"Do it man! You can revenge my lost! Come on Aichi!" Morikawa spoke, he grinned at the blue head.

Aichi looks back at his new card, he tilts his head before looking at Kamui, "I don't really get it…but I'd be happy to fight you."

Frowning, the young dark haired girl sighed and rubbed the back of her head, "This is going to be a long day." she mumbled softly, joining the group of people that had formed around a table that had Kamui and Aichi sat at, preparing to play vanguard. Ume watched quietly as the boys began to take five cards each, Aichi looked at his cards and frowned with a depressed glint in his blue eyes.

"You do know can take a re-draw, right?" Kamui spoke, noticing the look on the boy's face, seeing much more confusion appear on his face, he sighed, "Oh for crying out loud. What a newbie. Each new game, you can re-draw your cards, just once." he spoke, his eyes flashing in the light.

Aichi stared with wide eyes, "A-are you serious?" he asked, he had thought it is, you start with the cards you draw first, placing his finger up Kamui leaned forward, "Of course. You probably don't know this either, but you should try and have at least one grade of all the three grades, in your hand because that is the best strategy."

The young blue haired boy gasped, his eyes widen, "Oh, I see! That way you can level up your vanguard on your first turn, right? Thanks for letting me know." Ume stood quietly, she gazed around the table. Lifting an eyebrow when she noticed Kamui and his friends whispering among eachother before Kamui had this strange expression on his face. Letting out a soft 'err' Ume looked back at Aichi and watched as the boy re-drawn three new cards, she looked over at Kamui and noticed he had also re-drawn two cards.

"There! Our starting hands are set! Let's go!"

"Stand up! Vanguard!"

Aichi looks down at his cards, his eyes looks back at Kamui, "I guess I'll be g-going first then?" he asked softly and lifted a card ignoring Kamui let out a snobby comment, the blue head boy looked at his cards before lifting on, "I ride little sage Marron!" he called out, placing his card down. Ume watched as the flashes a familiar blue colour, she turns her eyes onto Kamui and wondered what colour she'll see him controlling, "I'm not able to attack on the first turn. So I hand it over to y-you."

"Sounds good." Kamui smirks and looks back at his cards; his ruby eyes sparkled as he draws a card and looked at it. A smirk creeps across his face, "I ride Screamin and Dancin Announcer, Shout! Stand up! When I ride Shout, my grade zero, Blaujunger special ability kicks in. I am able to slide him into rear guard." he purrs out smugly, Aichi gasps loudly, his blue eyes widen.

"What? That is a good ability."

Kamui tilts his head and places two other cards down in the rear guards, "I call upon the Queen of Hearts and the Shining Lady!" he calls out, Ume watches the cards, they flashes a bright orange colour, "You see there is a reason why I like to go second! Because it allows me to attack first! I support the Queen of Hearts with Blaujunger and attack Marron! When he is used as a support card, Blaujunger gains 3000 attack points!"

Gasping, the blue haired boy lifts a card and holds it out, "I guard with Weapons Dealer, Govannon!" he called out and places the card into the drop zone. Kamui nods and looks down at his cards, "I support Shout with Shining Lady and then attack Marron again." he says loudly. Aichi gasps and holds out another card, "in that case I guard with Elaine!" Smirking, Kamui lifts a card, checking for a drive trigger, "There isn't a trigger. That is good." Aichi breathes with relive," did you really have to defend on them? I guess my turn is over~ Come on~ Give me your best~"

Narrowing his eyes, Aichi frowns and draws another card, "Stand up my avatar! Ride! Blaster Blade! I call Wingal and Gallatin!" he cried out, placing three cards onto the mat, Ume watches as they flash a bright blue colour.

"Nice! Be sure to come at me with everything! Make sure you take damage while attacking and missing an attack just hurts your chances!" Kamui smirks smugly at him, wiggling his finger around as he spoke. Aichi nods.

"I attack Shout with Gallatin!" he calls out, turning Gallatin onto the side, Kamui nods, "I don't defend! I check for a trigger!" he says and places it onto his damage bar. Breathing deeply, Aichi then turns Wingal and Blaster Blade,

"I support Blaster Blade with Wingal and attack Shout. Wingal's ability gives Blaster Blade a 40000 attack boost! Again, I check for a drive trigger, no trigger."

"I check for a trigger. It is a stand trigger. It allows me to give 5000 points to any of my monsters. I give this booster short to Shout and plus I get to make one of my rear guards stand back up." Kamui spoke, tapping the card against Shout and then his Queen of Hearts card, "No! Not that….wait…that trigger doesn't really do anything to me…" Aichi blinks, looking at the card. Kamui nods in agreement.

"Yeah! That trigger works better for me." he admitted and Aichi smiles brightly.

"Oh good! I was a bite worried there."

"Learn the basics man!" Morikawa groaned, falling against the table while Ume let out a soft laugh at his actions. Kamui ignoring him, draws another card and smirked, "perfect timing! I ride Hungry Dumpty! I move the Queen of Heart back and in her place I call upon the King of Sword! I call Tough Boy and Brutal Jack."

Aichi looked at the cards with amazement, "Whoa. Brutal Jack is only a grade two and yet he has 11000 attack power…" he mumbled softly, "Yeah. I know. In order for me to attack with him, I have to pay an activated price during my turn."

"Man. What a useless card…" Morikawa whispered before gasping when Kamui chuckled.

"As usual, you missed the point entirely. I pay the activated price and boost Brutal Jack into high-gear! And I support him with Tough Boy and attack Blaster Blade!" Aichi gasped, looking at the card, "I can't use up anymore cards. If only I had that Elaine from before." Ume crossed her arms; she stared down at the card with wide eyes, "what a powerful attack." she thought to herself.

Kamui smiles, he rolls his head forward with a smug glint, "Shining lady support Hungry Dumpty and attack Blaster Blade. I check for drive trigger! Alright! You probably remember this bad boy! With this card I can make one of my rear guards stand up for another attack! You guessed right! Brutal Jack! Plus I've got 5000 bonus attack points that I'm going to give to…err…Brutal Jack!" he spoke proudly.

Aichi gasped with wide eyes at the number of attack points, "I check for a damage trigger." he sighed and revealed his card to the younger boy who grinned brightly, "now I attack your Blaster Blade with Brutal Jack once more!" Aichi groaned and checked for another damage trigger and frowned, placing the card on his damage bar. His blue eyes burned with frustration at the fact he now has three cards in his damage bar. Kamui smiled and swung his fist up.

"Ah~ The queen supports the King and attacks Blaster Blade! The queen supporting the King gives an extra bonus of 5000 attack power!"

"I see! So that is why you moved that unit back!" Aichi breathed deeply and lifted a card from his deck, checking for a damage trigger. Once again he frowned as he came up empty, "Four damage already! In one turn! Kamui is seriously good at vanguard. Aichi-kun's only chances are to hit him with everything…" Ume explained softly to the little blonde girl next to her, Emi gulped and looked at her older brother with concern.

"Will he be able to do it?" she asked, her shoulders trembling. Ume bites her bottom lip, unable to answer her.

Breathing a deep breath, Aichi stared at his deck his fingers pressed against the top card. His blue eyes narrowed, he looked around the troubled faces of the people around him from the corner of his eye. Aichi found Ume talking worriedly with Emi, Misaki would add in a few comments every now and then, "Emi…Ume…both are rooting for me…" he thought, snapping his head back around to look at his deck, "Please." he swiftly lifted the top card, he held it to his face and gasped upon seeing it. His blue eyes widen with a twinkle within them, his slips curled up into a smile and he looked back over at Emi and Ume, "Thank you…" he thought warmly and returned his attention to Kamui in front of him.

"Good draw." Misaki spoke, snapping both younger females out of their conversation and look at the battle with excited eyes, "I call upon the power of wings to help me with my faith! Ride! Solitary Knight, Gancelot!" he called out, Ume's eyes widen and she smiled with excitement, letting out a sound from the back of her throat as she watched the card, it shined of bright blue light like a newly polish diamond, "I activate Gancelot's ability! By paying the cost of two, I add 5000 to his attack power! Not to mention, plus one damage! I'll activate it again! Supporting with Marron, I attack Hungry Dumpty with Gallatin!" Aichi spoke high and mighty, Kamui gasped his eyes narrowed as he looked at the two cards in his hands, a troubled expression crossed his face, "I only have two cards in my hand and only one card has a defend shield! If I guard against this attack, I can still make it through Gancelot's three damage! I'm save as long as this guy doesn't pull a critical trigger! I….I don't think he's lucky enough to do that…" he thought, chewing his bottom lip hard and held up his shield-card.

Aichi let out a soft sound before narrowing his eyes once more, "I'll have Wingal support Gancelot's attack, bringing it up to 25000! Twin drive! Checking for the first trigger!" the boy said, turning to his deck and lifting the top card, "Nope." he sighed making Kamui let out a soft 'yes' followed by Morikawa who yelled at Aichi about destroying the little brat, Aichi breathed deeply and lifted a card and frowned sadly, "ahh! Why couldn't you have super good luck like me!" Morikawa cried, slamming his hands against the table, Ume just sweat drop and laughed nervously when Emi asked if that is true, "I always get the draws I need!"

"I check for three damage checks! First, no trigger. Second, no trigger and lastly, no trigger."

With a small sad frown, Aichi closed his eyes and re-opened them after a couple of seconds, "I got so close…well, that is the end of my turn…" Kamui breathed deeply and rubbed his forehead, "I stand and draw. Here goes! I ride Asura Kaiser! Counter blast activated! I place brutal Jack into high gear! using support, I attack Gancelot with brutal Jack!" he spoke and watched as Aichi checks for a damage trigger and groaned upon having none, "support King of sword with Queen of Heart and attack Gancelot again!"

"No! I guard against him!" Aichi cried out, holding a card up, "and I'll intercept Gallatin to cover the extra damage!" Morikawa frowned; his red eyes sparkled as he looked at the card, "intercept?" he questioned softly. Ume sighed and placed her hand onto her forehead, "it allows one of your other cards to take the damage instead." she explained gently, to not only the boy but to Emi too who nodded with understanding. Morikawa gasped and nodded with sweat on his cheeks, "oh of cause. I was just checking to see if you knew~" he said making Aichi and Ume chuckle at him, "ha! You're attack won't get through!"

Kamui glared at the boy with a small growl, "naa~ next! Shining Lady supports Asura Kaiser and attacks Gancelot!" he called out and watched as Aichi looked at his card desperately, "I guard with Starlight Unicorn and Gallatin!" he called out, placing the cards into drop zone, "just get me to my turn." Kamui looked at them and then back at his deck, "You forget I've got twin drive! First…no…second…" he breathed deeply, looking at the card and clenched his eyes closed, when he looked he grinned, "oh yeah! I am the best!" he cheered revealing a grade three card which confused them, "We won!" Morikawa cheered out making Kamui shake his head, "na-ah. That isn't how it works with Asura Kaiser! Having an Asura Kaiser already on the field, and having this card allows me to stand up one of my rear cards!"

"B-But no way!" Aichi gasped, looking down at the mat with wide blue eyes, "I call this my stand of pain! Brutal Jack is back up and attacking your vanguard!"

"Checking….damage trigger…..no trigger….." Aichi pouted sadly, lowering his head as he placed the card down on the damage bar making six cards, "that's game…" he sighed, packing his cards up.

Ume walked up to him; she titled his head and smiled. Aichi blinks his eyes before returning the smile, "He's strong. But not like Kai and Misaki." she commented, stepping away from the blue haired boy who nodded, "I love being able to battle different people." he sighed with a soft laugh, making Ume giggle and shake her head at him, "Aichi. You're the worse. I'm cutting our friendship until you improve." Morikawa grunted with a small frown. Ume blinks at him and shook her head with a soft 'unbelievable' under her breath, Aichi simply laughed nervously at the comment.

Kamui frowned, his arms crossed over his chest. He ignored the kids around him who spoke of him winning; he stared blankly at the bluenette boy in front of him, "what were you thinking fighting a guy that strong with only one grade three in your deck?" Morikawa frowned at him, but his eyes filled with happiness. Kamui stared wide eye at the boy, "what! He only had a single grade three! With a proper deck this guy could be trouble! Ah-well…" he thought to himself, sighing and shaking his head, "Aichi Sendou!" he called the boys attention, "You lost! Now give me what I want!"

"Yes Sir!" Aichi gasped, making Kamui chuckle and shake his head, "No…I don't want that. I'm…I'm going to take your lady." he mumbled shyly. Ume frowned deeper and shook her head, jealously it crawled in the pit of her stomach as she wondered what other female had gotten close to him. Glancing at Misaki and she frowned deeper, the woman is interested in somebody else, "…err what do you m-mean? m-my lady? The o-only girl I h-hang out with is…um..." Aichi mumbled, looking shyly at Ume who looked upset, deep in thought, "U-Ume-chan is my only friend w-who is a girl…"

Emi sighed; she crossed her arms and stomped straight up to Aichi, "Aichi! You've had your fun! Now take me to the library!" she demeaned, stomping her foot, "oh! Did you finish all your homework?" she asked with narrowed blue eyes, Ume snickered behind Emi making Aichi frown and tire to glare at her. Tried, it came out more like a puppy-stare.

"Those two. It's difficult to tell who the older sibling is sometimes." Misaki commented, shaking her head as she stood next to Ume. Ume just snickered more at the scene. Kamui suddenly popped up between them, he looked between the woman with a sweat drop, "W-what was that?" he asked with large red eyes. Ume blinks and looks down at him, "huh? What? That Aichi-kun and Emi-chan are brother and sister? Commonly known as siblings? " she questioned in confusion; she thought he had known that.

Kamui slowly stared up at the raven haired girl, "C-commonly know as…..SIBLINGS!" he shrieked loudly, hands to his cheeks. Ume stares before looking between Emi and Kamui, slowly it clicked in her head and her eyes widen, "oh! THAT'S SO CUTE~" she giggled, throwing her arms around him and began to rock backward and forward, singing about how cute it was.

"GHA! I CAN'T BREATH!"

~#~#~#~

Ume breathed deeply, her eyes dropping every now and then but fought to stay awake. The train made a gentle motion, a motion that could lure anybody to sleep. Letting out a yawn, she looked around the train and frowned when she noticed a group of girls sitting on the on far side of the train, whispering to one another and looking over at her. Frowning deeper, she rubbed her eyes and looked to the boy sitting next to her. Aichi Sendou. He looked excited about this small trip the group is taking.

Aichi smiled brightly, he looked through the glass window the two are sitting at. Ume tilts her head forward with a sparkle in her eye, she looks up at Morikawa and Izaki standing in front of them, holding onto the rails of the train, she eyed them and is a little worried that they'd fall over. Both looked as if they'd fall asleep on the train, standing up!. Turning her head back around, she looked back at the girls and huffed, pushing herself up, "it is our stop!" she called out, slapping her hands together hard next to Morikawa's ears. She smiled as the boy fell to the ground with a soft thump, he groaned and glared up at Ume who stuck out her tongue and ran towards the doors, "You little! Get back here!" he cried, running after the girl. Aichi and Izaki looked at each other and chuckled before running after the two.

The small group of girls frowned sadly as the three boys left after the plain looking girl.

"I can't believe you've never been to another card store. An another one, other than Card Capital!" Morikawa laughed, throwing his arm out and around Aichi's shoulders the four gathered up together in town. Today, Aichi is dressed in his favourite red sweater with a blue jacket and skinny jeans. Morikawa is dressed in a black shirt with white sleeves and skinny jeans. Izaki is dressed in his button up blue shirt with a white shirt underneath and a grey zipper three quarter lengths and lastly, Ume is in her favourite white strap frilly shirt that had green frills with shorts, "Well you're in luck today! I know exactly where one is!" Morikawa spoke happily, throwing his fist into the air.

Aichi smiled, allowing the other boy to lead him away, Izaki and Ume laughed and followed after them. The group walked down the long roads, stopping every now and then to look at a few things, "I'll…I'll b-be right back." Aichi smiled, running down another road. Ume blinks her large eyes and frowns before turning to look at Morikawa, "so then sir. Where is this most awesome card store?" she asked, mimicking his voice. Morikawa snorted and turned around with his hands on his hips, "it is just this way~" he sang out, walking down another road.

Ume squealed, almost running into his back. She rubbed her head and peered around him, she stared up at his face with a frown, noticing he is trembling, "Don't tell me you've gotten us lost!" she frowned, placing her hand onto her forehead and shook her head. Morikawa laughed nervously, "What? No! It is…tha…no…this…um.." he mumbled, looking around, pointing in random directions, his knees trembling as he kept shaking his hands around. Izaki sighed and shook his head, his large amber eyes shut with his own groan.

"H-Hey!" a familiar voice called, the trio turned in time to see the bluenette running up to them with a smile, "Thank god. I-I almost couldn't f-find you guys." Aichi laughed, rubbing the back of his head. He hums and noticed the looks on Ume's and Izaki's faces, "What's the m-matter?" he questioned softly, blinking his innocent eyes, Ume groans once more, "He forgot where the store is!" she explained with a snort making Aichi smile while Morikawa groan with depression. Aichi allows his eyes to scan around the road before looking behind himself, "ano. Is t-that it?" he asked, pointing down at a small ally way with a game store sign at the end. Trailing behind the boys, Ume frowns as they entered the store, it looked terrifying, empty. Long, amazing floating tables with floating cards, Morikawa tried to grab one only to have his hand go straight through the card, "It isn't Card Capital, that's for sure…"

"Welcome." a gentle but yet sugary sweet voice spoke. The group turned their heads to look at the young female that looked to be about the same age of Emi. She had long orange hair that had large curls with large red ribbons in her hair, a pink and red strip, sleeveless shirt and a matching skirt. Surprisingly, the girl had a pair of big purple eyes, "Thank you for coming out to Card Shop PSY." she smiled sweetly at them, tilting her head to the side. Her purple eyes scans each and every one of them, Ume watched as a bored like glint appeared in her large eyes as they looked over her, Izaki and Morikawa. Ume felt annoyances rip through her body at the smile that made its way across her face as they looked at Aichi, "Please. Follow me." she purrs out, turning around and walking down a hallway.

Ume grumbles to herself and follows after the girl with the boys, unaware of the concerned blue eyes staring at her as they walked. The orange head girl leads them within a large dark hall, the four gasped when a blinding light snapped on.

There, in the middle of the hall is a large card-stage with the vanguard circles symbols upon, "What is that?" Morikawa asked with a wide grin, "the vanguard fight stage!" the young orange head girl called out loudly with a wide smile. Eyes widening, Morikawa let out a shriek of glee and ran towards it, Ume gasped, "w-wait! You have to ask-" she began but was cut off when Aichi ran after him, "Aichi-kun!"

Aichi smiled at Morikawa, he lifted his fist, "I c-challenged you to card f-fight!" he spoke brightly and the other nodded eagerly. The bluenette ran towards the other side of the stage.

Ume groans and touches her forehead with a soft groan, "I'm so sorry about them." she spoke, looking at the little orange head girl who simply smiles up at them, "it's fine. Nee? Why do you hide your eyes? Are they that ugly?" she asked with wonder. Ume simply stood there numbly, blinking her eyes. Izaki, who had heard the hurtful comment laughs nervously and gently touches Ume's shoulders and directed her from the other female, who simply smiled and waved at them, "I have ugly eye?" Ume whispered to herself, her mind cloud.

"It's not working." Morikawa had drawn their attention over to them. The boys hands was moving across the mat with a frustrated frown, "hey Aichi! Buddy, is there a button on your side?" he asked, looking across the stage at the bluenette to find he was staring blankly at the orange head girl, "Aichi?" he repeated the boy's name, snapping him out of his thoughts and look back at him, "huh? Oh. It doesn't look like it…there isn't any buttons…" he mumbled, lowering his gaze to the glass mat and gently lowering his hands to one of the circles and gasped when it lit up with golden light.

"Place you're deck on the turmoil!"

Aichi stared wide eyes down at the glowing symbols, he couldn't belief the stage is talking to him, "Place m-my deck…" he repeated and looked at the familiar box to the side. He jumped when the computer voice repeated itself, "o-okay!" he nodded and pulled out his deck and gently placed it onto the deck box. As soon as the cards touched the see-though mat, the stage bust to life with lights and a glass box appeared in the middle of the stage. Aichi gasped, noticing the computer-stage had scanned his cards.

The small orange head girl stared with wide eyes at the cute boy, "The system turned on for him…" she mumbled thoughtful before gasping and looking over her should to see a beautiful tall woman, "Oh yeah! Let's do this!" Morikawa grinned joyful, looking at the mat.

"Out of the way!" a voice snapped; the voice is female with a firm edge to it. It was much deeper than Misaki's and a higher pitch then Ume's, "No. This game is mine. You can't just come over here and butt-" Morikawa spoke, he trailed off when a woman stepped into the light.

Much like Misaki, yet not. Glaring down at him with her arms crossed underneath her large bust is a woman with long blonde hair. The woman looked older than what she really is; her long blonde hair had pats pulled up into a high bun on top of her head with beautiful sparkling green eyes. Dressed in a white and black kimono-like outfit, the woman looked flawless, "…I wish my eyes were a beautiful as hers…" Ume found herself mumbling and making Izaki standing next to her gives her a pity look and gently rubbed her shoulder in comfort. Morikawa looks at the blonde with red cheeks and backs away, "I mean…be my guest." he grins, waving his hands out.

Aichi blinks his bright blue eyes, watching the woman take the spot where Morikawa had stood a moment before, "I…um…err…" he stuttered unsure of what to say to this unfamiliar person, "Hey. I'm Kourin. You are?" the golden haired woman asked, placing her hand to her hip. Aichi let out a small gasp and bowed shyly, "oh…I-I'm A-Aichi S-Sendou!"

Smiling almost pleasantly at the timid boy, the girl tilts her head, "So. Do you think you can show me how good you are?" she asked, her narrowed green eyes flashing brightly. The bluenette blinks in thought before smiling at her, "You…you w-want to fight m-me?" he questions with amazement.

"Kourin. What a nice name." Morikawa spoke, walking towards Izaki and Ume with a dreamy smile, "I think I've figured it out. The force that had lead us here today wasn't a rare card…it was her beauty!"

Kourin hummed, she narrowed her eyes at Aichi, "Aichi Sendou. I've never heard that name before. What tournaments have you been in?" she asked smoothly causing the boy to freak out and shake his hands around, "w-what. Oh no-no. I haven't b-been in t-tournaments before! I'm s-still kind of n-new to this." at the words, the woman narrowed her eyes even more with displease on her face, but as soon as it came it went again.

"He really never been in a tournament?" the young orange head girl asked, looking at the trio. Izaki shook his head with a friendly smile, "oh no. He had only started playing a while ago." he spoke softly to the younger girl before both jumped when they heard Morikawa growl, "a beginner like him can get to battle my darling Kourin before me is unforgivable!"

Aichi breathed deeply, he gently began to shuffle his deck with worried eyes, "She seems really good…at l-least I get t-to try out a v-vanguard fight stage…" he thought, looking up at the stage once more with a glint in his eyes, "this should be f-fun." lifting the five cards and smiled when the other said she is ready when he is, "alright!"

"Stand up! Vanguard!"

Ume gasped the glass box flashes like a computer hand just been booted on. She wanted as both placed the same cards down, Stardust Trumpeter, "She's…got the same deck?" she mumbled softly, she gasped as the glass filled with bright blue light and when it dimmed it was a television, "No way! I can see all the units like I'm really there!" Aichi spoke excitedly.

"I'll go first! I draw and ride, the Flash Shield, Iseult!" Kourin spoke, placing the card onto the mat and on the image, little Stardust Trumpeter erupted in bright white light, transforming into a woman with white hair, tan skin and green eyes. Aichi looked at her and breathed softly clam himself down, "its m-my turn! Draw. And I also ride Iseult!" he cried, watching as his own Stardust Trumpeter transform into the same woman with white hair, tan skin and green eyes, "that is so wired. I guess this means y-you're running a R-Royal Paladin deck too." Kourin smirked, she closed her eyes and sighed, "I am. Small world, huh?" Aichi stared at her for a couple of seconds before holding a card up, "I call Starlight Unicorn." and a beautiful horse appeared on the screen. A white horse with a glowing blue horn with a rainbow coloured main, "Starlight Unicorn boosts Iseult's power by 5000 this turn. And thanks to Gancelot ability, I am able to shovel him back into my deck and chose a lower grade Paladin. That card is…" he spoke, holding a card out to reveal Blaster Blade to her.

Kourin purred her eyes sparkled brightly, "You've got a rare one. I'm impressed kid." she hummed, Aichi smiled to himself and turned his Stardust Unicorn card to the side, "I attack your Iseult with my Stardust Unicorn." he called out, watching as the horse on the image charge at the woman, "I check for a trigger card!" she spoke loudly, pulling a card and smirking at the trigger on the corner, "Trigger activated. Iseult power just went up by 5000!"

"With Iseult's power gone up, there is no way I am attacking her this turn! But, if I get a trigger I could, if not then at least I get another card." Aichi thought, looking at his deck, "I'm attacking! My Iseult against your vanguard! I check for a drive trigger! No trigger!" Aichi spoke, lifting his card to find that he had drawn a Wingal, "I'm done now." Kourin nodded and took a card, "then I stand and draw! I ride Knight of the Harp, Tristan!" she spoke watching as her Iseult transformed into a beautiful young woman in amour. The woman had short grey hair with tan skin, she held a long sword in her right hand and in her left is a harp, "and I call Starlight Unicorn and Flogal to rear guard. My Unicorn attacks!" she yelled out while Aichi narrowed his eyes and checked for damage card, "damage trigger activated. My Iseult power just went up by 5000!" Tilting her head, the blonde smirked and throw her fist out, "Tristan attacks with support of Flogal!"

Aichi gasped, wide eye as he placed another card down on his damage bar, "She's pushing back…" Izaki spoke, tilting his head, "Go Kourin! Win this for me! Sweetie!"

"There we have it! You have more damage than I have and yet our decks are really similar. Can you spot the differences between us?" she asked, eyeing the boy with a cunning smile, "Can you? Rookie?" she spoke, watching as Aichi began to tremble. Ume simply stood there, too deep in her own mind to notice the bluenette had frozen on the spot, "Ume? Aichi has frozen up! Say something!" Izaki whispered, shaking her by the shoulder, snapping her out of whatever depressing thoughts that had crept within her mind. Blinking her eyes, she looked up at the brunette with a confused frown, "huh?" Izaki shook his head and suddenly slapped her lightly on the head, "Aichi! His frozen." he called out, pointing towards the boy. At first, being the numb girl she is, Ume thought Aichi had been frozen, frozen. Snapping her head around, she breathed in relief upon seeing him normal just shaking. A lot. After listening to what had happen while she had been drowning in her thoughts, Ume frowned and huffed.

"Aichi!" she finally called out, Izaki let out a sigh of relief and muttered a soft 'finally' the bluenette boy jumped and turned around to look at her with wide eyes, "the only differences between her and you is that she has more experiences is all. Don't let that get to you. Remember what you said! There is a first for everything!" Ume found herself turning a bright red at the smile that suddenly appeared on Aichi's face, she shivered shyly and lightly poked her fingers together, "er…um…yeah…" Aichi's smile is warm and soft, it filled her stomach and her fingers tingle, Aichi turned his head to look at Kourin, "Sorry for stalling the fight. I made a few mistakes earlier but I'm ready to show you want I can really do this time." he said bravely, speaking without shuddering at all, Kourin looked unimpressed, "My turn! Stand a draw! I can't give up, not before I have the chance to bring him into battle!" he thought to himself, his eyes narrowing and looked up with a burning fire within his eyes.

"This…It's like a new person…" Kourin thought watching the male lift a card, "Stand up my avatar! Ride! Blaster Blade!" Aichi called out, throwing the card forward creating a large burst of light to erupt from Iseult and Ume gasped upon seeing the male known as Blaster Blade. Her stomach flipped upon finally seeing him, he is a tall man with blue and silver amour, the strange thing is that his face is covered by a shadow, "I then move Starlight Unicorn back to call upon Gallatin and Wingal!" Aichi breathed deeply and clenched his eyes, " give me strength, Blaster Blade!" Ume's eyes widen when Blaster Blade finally lifted his head, he looked like Aichi. A long lock of the same colour blue covered his left eye, in fact he has blue eyes too, looking at Aichi she found herself blush upon seeing that his eyes had changed. They now look much more sharper and brighter, she wondered why she had never noticed it before. Ume stared blankly at the image of Blaster Blade of the screen that it she swore it was Blaster Blade talking and not Aichi.

Blaster Blade looked back over his shoulder, "Rear guards ready! Gallatin attack with the support of Starlight Unicorn!" he called out like a real general, Ume was so disappointed when Kourin guarded with a card. It amazement her, Blaster Blade isn't even fazed by it, "go Wingal!" he called out and the beautiful raven coloured dog with wing growled and lowered him, he glowed a bright blue colour and sent it over to Blaster Blade, sending his power up to 19000, "attack!" he called out and easily moved towards Kourin vanguard and rammed his sword against her, earning a damage card.

"You know kid you're pretty good, for a rookie." Kourin spoke, snapping Ume out of her thoughts. She shook her head and rubbed her eyes, it was amazing. Blaster Blade is so cool, "my turn! Stand and draw! I ride! Crimson Butterfly, Brigitte! I call a second on to my rear guard! Next I call Starlight Unicorn back and summon Tristan!"

"Oh whoa! She's got so many units! Aichi! Get ready for a beautiful end!" Morikawa yelled, swinging his fists around joyful. Kourin smirked and throw her fist out, "Crimson Butterfly, Brigitte is attack Blaster Blade!" she yells and Aichi quickly guards with a card, "I wonder? If you can guard this next one?" she purred, watching as Pongal gives her power to her vanguard, Crimson Butterfly, Brigitte, "Go!" Aichi gasped out and cried out to Blaster Blade, "and let's not forget the twin drive! First one, not a trigger! I got Gancelot who is a grade 3, which raises my vanguard by another 5000! Second trigger check! I got one! Now it really is on! Brigitte is going to have the critical bonus but I am going to give the 5000 boost to Tristan! Burn in the fire, little Blaster Blade!"

Aichi gasped as two more cards was added to his damage bar making four. Ume looked at Blaster Blade on the screen and gasped with worry, he looked so beat up and more is coming, "Tristan! Attack now!" Kourin called out adding another damage card, "that makes five-"

"Damage trigger active! I recover one card from my damage zone." Aichi said with relief, he placed the card in the drop zone, "you had some pretty good timing on the heal trigger. My turn is over." Kourin huffed, turning her head with a 'I'm above up' expression. Ume let out a sigh of relief, Aichi isn't out of this yet, "it's my turn. I stand and draw." he spoke, gently lifting another card up and looked at them, Ume watched as Aichi looked to be thinking a plan thought. His bright blue eyes looks down at the deck and then back at the cards in his hand, "I call upon the power of Wing of faith! Ride! Solitary Knight, Gancelot!" Aichi called out, Ume watches as Blaster Blade transformed into a beautiful man on a white horse with long wings, "I counter attack. Paying two, I raise his attack power by 5000! One more time, I pay two more and raises his attack power again by another 5000! Now I call Iseult and Marron!" Ume looked at Marron, she smiled at him, he looked like a young child with golden hair and blue eyes.

The young raven haired girl stared with wide eyes as like Blaster Blade; Gancelot looked as if he was talking instead of Aichi. Swiftly, his shadowed face zapped into the exact same face of Blaster Blade. It amazed her so much, "Gallatin! Attack!" Gancelot yelled out and the monster ran forward, holding his sword high and yet, Kourin blocked him once more and like before, Gancelot looked unfazed, "Marron. Attack!" he called out and the blonde sent a beam of blue towards Kourin's vanguard and yet again, she guarded. Gancelot tugs on the rains of his horse and charges toward Brigitte, preparing to attack.

Aichi breathed deeply, "Trigger check! First check! No…..Second check…please…" the bluenette boy frowned upon not getting a single trigger, "Looks like you didn't get what you hoped." Kourin spoke, searching his face with narrowed green eyes; Aichi sighed and twirled the card around, "seems so, no drive trigger." Kourin nodded, she tilts her head and lifts up two cards, both had no trigger and she places them onto her damage bar, making four in total. Breathing deeply, the blonde lifted a card and smirked, "heal trigger activated! Remove one damage card. My turn stand and draw. I call Iseult. You better hope for another heal trigger!"

"It isn't over yet. There has to be a way to win…" Aichi thought, biting his bottom lip hard and looking down at the three cards in his hands, "Brigitte attack Gancelot!" Kourin yelled before frowning when Aichi guarded with Flogal, narrowing her eyes, Kourin lent forward, "again!" she demeaned with her other Brigitte, "no guard…this time…one more damage to go…just as long as she doesn't draw that trigger." Aichi thought. Kourin lifted the first trigger checked to show none, when she draws her second card, she smirked, "You know your timing on you all-out attack is pretty impressive. Too bad your luck is all out." she spoke, showing a critical trigger, "End of the line."

Aichi stared down at the damage card for a couple of second, his eyes soften and he smiled, happy about the fight, "I guess I still have a lot to learn huh?" he smiled bashful as Kourin walked over to him with her arms behind her back, she looked down at his hand gasped, "you had no other cards…but you never gave up…" she thought, looking at the cards noticing he didn't have any cards with shield, "Thanks Kourin. Even though I lost, it was still fun to fight you."

Suddenly the hall was filled with a gentle clapping, everyone turned their heads to see a woman walking towards them with blue hair swirled to the side, dressed in a blue shirt and matching pants, "What a great fight. It sure was impressive." she spoke, walking toward Aichi and held out a card, "For you."

Aichi looked down at the card with wide eyes, "It's the King of Knights, Alfred. You're giving it to me!" he asked with a wide smile and looked up at the woman who chuckled, "a memorial of your visit." she smiled softly at him. Aichi gasped and took the card gently, "T-thank you s-so much." he jumped, startled when Kourin spoke a word, "Enter tournaments and once you're better, I'll fight you again. What do you say rookie?"

"R-Really?" the small bluenette asked with bright blue eyes, "Me next sweet heart!" Morikawa cut in, pressed up against the glass window, "Defeat me so bad and teach me so good!" he purred while the other simply stared with a sweat drop before he was shoved by the small orange head girl.

"Oh looks like we're closing now."

The next day, Ume sighed, tugging on her black locks staring at herself though Card Capital window, she could see herself looking back. Lifting her locks, she frowns a little. Her eyes looked normal, normal green. Nothing amazing about them, the reason she hides them because they're to large and round. Sighing, she allowed her hair to fall back over them and ducked her head. It was after school and is dressed in her uniform again, "it's missing!" a voice shrieked and the doors opened, Morikawa ran into the store. Ume turned around and watched Morikawa rushed up to Isaki and Aichi with his hands shaking, "where my beautiful Kourin works! I can't fine!"

"Maybe it went under. No costumers." Izaki shrugged, ignoring Morikawa as he throws his hands up into the air with a loud shriek, "No that isn't fair! I didn't even have the chance to fight my beloved Kourin yet!"

Ume sighed, listening as the boys talked about the shop. Morikawa busting into tears, she rolled her eyes and played with her black locks again, "I'm going home Misaki." she called out to the lavender head woman, walking towards the door with a quick wave, Misaki looked up in surprise, "really? It's still early…" she trailed, noticing the forced smile Ume sent her.

Stepping out the store, the young girl looked up with a small frown and slowly began to walk down the road, "Ume-chan!" a voice called out behind her, blinking in surprise, Ume spun around with wide eyes to find Aichi standing behind her with a smile, "I'm glad I c-caught you before y-you left." he laughed, turning his body to the side a little and shovelling within his pocket, "close your eyes. I've got a surprise."

Ume found herself going pink, "C-close my e-eyes?" she repeated embarrassingly, Aichi nodded with that warm smile and mumbled a soft 'please' gulping, Ume nodded, "a-alright." she breathed shyly and closed her eyes. She felt nervous, unsure of what is going to happen. She jumped startled when she felt warm breath against her check, her heart thump within her chest and her cheeks turned a pinker colour.

"umm….T-there. You can open y-your eyes know." Aichi's voice called out gently. Mouth open a little, Ume slowly allowed her eyes to open, unlike all the other times she had closed her eyes and opened them, she found everything clear around her, no black hairs in front of her face this time,

"W-what?"

Smiling warmly at her, Aichi rubbed the back of his head, "I w-wanted to get y-you something a-after you got me my f-first grade three. A-And Emi suggested this. It's g-green so it matches your eyes." he mumbled timidly. Ume blinks her eyes and turns to look at her reflection in the store window, she gasped upon seeing herself. There, staring back at her is a girl with black hair. She didn't have her hair covering her eyes, a large green ribbon is tired with her hair, pulling it back and framing her face, the bow above her head makes her eyes stand out.

"Also, I don't think your eyes are ugly. I think they're very pretty." The boy spoke without a stutter and gently touched her shoulder, standing on his tip-toes he quickly pecked her on the check, "Thank you for helping me all the time Ume-chan." he smiled.

Turning redder and redder, Ume gulped her chest tighten as her heart thumped with in. She ducked her head and clenched her eyes close tightly, letting out a soft sound as she tried to calm herself down, "I….I'll….s-see you tomorrow Aichi-kun!" she squealed loudly, spinning around and running as fast as she could down the road, leaving the smiling boy behind.

"See you tomorrow."

* * *

_Aichi Sendou _

_Gender: A middle school student _

_Age: 15 years old_

_Birthday: 16th June_

_Personalities _

_Aichi is a shy and timid boy. He stutters when he speaks and blushes very easy. Aichi is nice and kind to everyone he mets, he tries not to judge anybody. He believes that the real deal with Vanguard is to have fun, that there isn't any point to play the card game without having fun. Aichi tries to hide behind bigger people, not liking violences especially when it comes to fist fights. _

_When Aichi playes the card game Vanguard, unnoticed by everyone he changes. It is almost as if somebody else plays for him. This Aichi is braver and stronger, he noticed everything around and sees things clear. When playing, Aichi does not stutter and hardly ever blushes. Even when he is in this 'state' Aichi still doesn't care if he wins or loses, he still believes that the whole point of the game is to have fun. _

_He cares for his friends very much. Dispite the fact he is friends with Morikawa, he does get scared of the boy sometimes but most of the time he find the older more fun to be around. He isn't very close with Izaki, he cares for the boy as friend but he doesn't know much about him. He admires Kai very much and wishes to become close friends with the boy, he hopes that one day him and Kai will become close friends. Misaki is a woman that Aichi looks up to, she is like an older sister who explains things to him clear. He challenges Kaumi alot and cares for the boy deeply, he is one of his closest friends. Aichi relys on Ume a lot, Ume is a girl who does her best to help him out and Aichi is very thankful for that, he is unaware of the feelings she holds for him and believe at the moment that they are just close friends._

* * *

**_Well? What do you think? Is it alright or plain bad? I hope to hear from you soon!_**

**_Don't forget to REVIEW, FAVORUITE AND FOLLOW_**


	4. Chapter 4

_****__**Thank you ******__OtakuAnimeLover21, 4fireking, Some Guy, Rolo-chan, Reader, PsyQualiaGeassuser, MCRDanime _ for reading and reviewing^^ I hope you'll stick with me. 

_**I am a rookie at writing. Please do tell me if I've wrote something wrong, I will fix it as soon as I see your message^^**_

_**A big fat thank you to my lovely beta, StuffStuff! Thank you so much^^**_

_**Enjoy**_

* * *

Chapter 4

"You've won the cardfight, but you haven't won the real fight!"

"Enough you two! If you can't get along I have no problem throwing you out!" Misaki's angry voice hissed out. Ume mumbled softly, her cheeks turned a soft pink colour as she tugged on her school skirt shyly, holding her book bag in her other hand. Green eyes wide with embarrassment, she glanced around the road she stood on, outside Card Capital. Biting her bottom lip, she poked her head through the doors and looked at the ones inside.

Sitting behind the counter, Misaki looked down at the book in her hands. After finishing Lord of the Rings in a week, the woman had gone into a new series. Misaki's eyes ran over the page when she suddenly noticed a shadow over pass the counter, the shadow looked familiar. She stared at the shadow, it had two large bunny like ears sticking out of the head. Lifting her head, Misaki's eyes widen with surprise before they soften and she smiled, "You should keep your hair like that more often Ume." She commented on the green ribbon in her hair, the ribbon tied into a rather large but yet sweet bow sitting within her locks.

Ume blushed, she smiled shyly and touched the black locks that is pulled back revealing her eyes, "It…it doesn't…make me look wired? I know m-my eyes are a bit big…" she admitted with her head ducked. Misaki shook her head with her own 'hm' "No. your eyes are fine. In fact, you're eyes don't even look big."

"Meow." Ume smiled brighter, looking down at Sis-cat. The small cat purred up at her with his large sparkling blue eyes, "You think it looks good too?" she giggled, bending down partly. She laughed more when Sis-cat rubbed his face against hers, "I'll take that as a yes."

Ume lifted her head when she felt the ribbon in her hair being touched, looking back she pouted at Taishi who grinned, "I never took you to be interested looks." he commented, placing his arms behind his back, his blue eyes twinkling mystery, "Not that you look bad or anything." he quickly added before the girl could sink into a some kind of depression.

Ume just smiled at him, "Thanks." she nodded her head, her short black locks bounced as she moved her head, "I like her eyes. The ribbon m-matches her eyes." Ume blushes and looks at the boy walking through the door. Aichi smiled at her, his blue eyes sparkles as they look around, "I thought K-Kai would have been here…"

"Naa. You can never know with that guy." Taishi explained, leaning against the counter and gently stroked Sis-cat. Aichi frowned, but nodded in understanding, "Too b-bad." he sighed.

The blonde boy lifted his head and looked at the small bluenette, "What gives Aichi? You a Kai fan or something?" he asked with curiosity. Aichi smiled up at him and laughed softly, "of cause. H-He's such a g-good player, I want to h-have another card fight with him." he spoke gleeful, Ume smiled and nodded her head in agreement, "oh. I'm a Kai fan too." she admitted and laughed at the expression that over came Taishi's face, "Seriously? Damn. Never took you being a fangirl either…" Ume tilted her head to the side and rubbed the back of her head.

"A cardfight you say? Well why don't you fight the best, me! Morikawa right here!" Morikawa cheered loudly, running up to them while pointing at himself, "can you believe this guy? Did you seriously forget you just lost a game?" Kumai laughed, stepping up to them with a massive grin, he stuck his tongue out when Morikawa glared down at him, "LM, doesn't even know he is LM!" Kumai's friend giggled gleeful, "LM? What does that mean?" Morikawa asked with confused red eyes, "Loser Morikawa!" the same boy explained with his own big grin.

"Stay out of this! You little hip-hop cheerleader!"

Misaki's eyes narrowed, she slammed the book close and turned her head, her blue eyes glared harshly at the group, "Somebody better call the ambulance; quick." she hissed, emotionless and almost like she is making a promise then a statement.

"Good work you two. Way to get us kicked out."

Ume hummed to herself, she walked down the long road. It is a wonderful day, the sun is shining and the summer's breeze felt great against her forehead. Holding her book bag in front of her lap, she gazed up at the bright blue sky, "Aichi and I didn't do anything. This whole thing is your fault." The young black haired girl blinks her eyes at the familiar voice. With a small frown, she turned her head to look at Taishi walking depressingly down the road, "Not the way I remember it." Morikawa grunted with his arms behind his head.

Izaki rolled his eyes at them, "Come on guys. Grow up." Rolling her eyes, she sighed and turned her head back around with a snort of agreement.

Pretty soon the group got to the cross roads, Ume rocked on the balls of her feet as she waved to Morikawa, Izaki and Kamui's two young friends, "Bye~" she called out softly.

She grunted with narrowed eyes when an arm suddenly appeared on her head and made her duck, "Looks like we all live in the same neighborhood doesn't it." Taishi grinned, Ume frowned and looked to see who 'we' are, only to find, Taishi, Kamui and Aichi. She blinks her green eyes with a soft 'huh?'

"Yeah. We do." Aichi smiled shyly up at the blonde while a smile similar to a monkey's grin appeared on Kamui's face, "oh whoa! If I live by Aichi! Then that means I live by Emi!" he giggled, going off into some kind of daydream.

Aichi laughed nervously before noticing a brunette walking down a street, "Hey…" he trailed, catching the other three's attention, they all turned to look in the direction he is looking in, "I didn't know Kai lived around here." Taishi frowned, leaning back with wide eyes, "You don't know w-where he lives?" Aichi asked as the four began to cross the road, Taishi shrugged, "Nope. I can tell you where he lived when we were kids. Since moving back here, he's been keeping to himself mostly. To tell yah the truth, I never see him outside school or the card shop. When he does talk to me, it is never about anything personal."

"You know what this means?" Kamui shirked, twirling around to stand in front of the three. His red eyes twinkled mystery, "Finding Kai on the street is like opening a new card pack!" laughing, Taishi lifted his head to look at the back of Kai's figure, "Kind of. Yeah, but you know, he wasn't always like this."

Ume watches the leaving Kai, she noticed how his hair would gently bounce with each step, the sun covered him. He looked almost beautiful, she found her cheeks turning a light pink colour "We should follow him!" Kamui's voice snapped her out of the daze she had began to fall into. Frowning she looked at the spiky boy with confusion, "Don't you guys even wonder? A mysterious guy like him must be hiding something good." he grinned with his hands on his hips, "l-let's not…" Aichi mumbled quietly with a sweat drop on the side of his head.

"Sounds like fun to me."

"Okay! We gotta hurry before we lose sight of him!"

Sighing, the small girl rubbed the back of head, she stood looked around the tree she had hid behind, "This is stupid." she commented on what the group is doing. Following Kai and hiding behind trees, letter boxes and walls. Aichi blushed deeply and nodded in agreement, "shh! He hasn't seen us yet." Kamui snapped, looking at the two with narrowed eyes.

"W-We should turn b-back. This isn't right, Kamui." Aichi tried to reason, walking out from the wall he had hid behind, "What are you talking about? How can you call yourself a friend when you don't even know where the guy lives!" The small dark haired boy snapped back, Ume frowned and stepped on Taishi foot hard when he began to nod in agreement, "Red!" he cried, rubbing his foot while the girl huffed and walked forward, "err…Red?" Kamui asked in confusion, running his eyes over the girl who laughed and rubbed the back of her head, "It's a long, long story."

Blinking his bright red eyes, Kamui moved to speak but then stopped, "Hey! He's turning!" he cried out, pointing down at the brunette who is turning a corner, "after him!" he cried out loudly and ran down the street, the others chuckled but followed him, "Where's Kai?" the young boy frowned as the other older teens slowed to stop next to him and looked down another empty road, "That's weird…"

"What do you think you're doing?" a cold, emotionless voice spoke behind the four. All of them jumped, startled and spun around to find the same boy they had been following, he stood with one hand in his pocket and the other holding his book bag over his shoulder. Ume found her cheeks turning red from embarrassment, "Taishi, don't you think you're a bit old to be playing detective?" the brunette spoke with narrowed green eyes, Taishi laughed nervously and waved, "err, you're never to old to p-play make believe. Haha~"

Aichi stared up at the boy before gasping and bowing as low as he could, "I'm sorry!" he squealed loudly, "This is all my fault. You see, I w-wonder about you sometimes. You seem a lot different to w-what you used to be, Kai. When I found out you d-don't even talk to Taishi anymore, I thought-"

Kai stared down at the bluenette, his eyes narrowed with coldness, "You should mind your own business! I have no reason to tell you anything." he snapped almost cruelly at the small bluenette who stared up at him with hurt eyes, he closed them before he reopened them with determination, "w-well then…w-what if I beat you? In a c-card game. If I beat y-you in a card fight will y-you tell me a little bit about y-your life? Like a friend would?"

"You're joking right? I have nothing to gain from fighting somebody as weak as you." Kai groaned with narrowed eyes, he ignored the hurtful expression that over came Aichi's face, "Look I'm not going to say this again, so listen up. Leave me alone!" he spoke and began to walk away.

Ume shook her head and gently placed her hands on sadden boys shoulders, Aichi stared at the floor underneath them, his hair bags shadowed his eyes, "Hey Kai, hold it right there! Stop being such a…er….chimp!" Kamui yelled, he stopped at the last word and tried to form words before finally crying out Chimp.

Taishi repeats the word as he and Ume looked at eachother with blank eyes, "Chimp?" Taishi suddenly chuckled, "I think he meant to say Chum." Ume gasped and nodded in understanding.

Kamui, hearing the two, pouted and ducked his head with narrowed eyes, "Actually I meant to say Chimp…" he muttered with 'animated' tears, he shook his head and looked up at the brunette, his hands curled into fists, "Kai fight me, you big Monkey!" he yelled out loudly.

"Sure. I'll fight you little boy. Just don't waste my time." the brunette spoke sarcastically, still walking away and leaving the fuming boy behind.

Ume stared blankly at Kais retreating form with sadden eyes. She frowned and lowered her head, "Why do I feel that is just a mask…?" she wondered to herself and shook her head, "How can he be so cold and heartless?"

The next day, Ume frowned. The young girl stared with worried eyes at the card fight table, Kamui standing on the red stump holding his cards while Kai stood facing him holding his own cards. She bit her bottom lip and looked between the two, her eyes turned to look at Aichi who mirrored the exact same expression.

"What is going on over there?" Misaki asked, walking to Shins side and looked at the two, "Kamui and Kai are about to start off." he spoke proudly, his eyes flashing dramatically. Bright blue eyes blinked, Misaki looks towards the two younger boys, "Really? Now you mention it, I've never seen the two fight before." she said with wonder, "Not just that, but they're going to do it on one of MY fight tables! This day just keeps getting better and better!"

"Watch the counter for me, okay." Misaki spoke, walking to the crowd with Sis-cat following, Shin gasped and waved his hand out, "w-wait! You too Sis-cat! Naa! You guys are the worst!"

"Stand up, the vanguard, Lizard-Stand-Zoon-Zoon!" Kai bellowed, turning his vanguard card over, "That vanguard sounds stupid. Battle Raizer!" Kamui sneered, flipping his own card over, "I usually like going second, but either way I am going to beat you! It's time for me to ride the Screamin' and Dancin' Announcer, Shout! Activating my Battleraizer's ability, I move him to the rear circle." Kamui spoke, looking down at his cards, "Activating Shout's ability, I drop one card from my hand and pick up one from my deck." he spoke and quickly lifted a card, disappointment crossed his face, "I summon Shout and activated his ability. I draw again." he boy said, placing the card down and then picking up another and smiled, "I end my turn."

A smirk makes it way across Kai's face, his eyes shimmers as he gazes down at the battle mat, "It looks like your units are gathering up quite nicely. Unfortunately this game isn't going to last long for you to use them. I'm going to ride, Embodiment of Armour, Bahr. To my rear guard, I call a second Bahr! Now they take turns attacking your Vanguard!" he said, his eyes flashing daringly. Kamui frowned and ducked his head, "I don't defend! Damage check…" he sighed, placing a damage card into his bar, "Next Bahr! Drive trigger." Kai said, lifting a card and revealing he had none, while Kamui pouts he does a damage check also, he then placed it into his bar, "that ends my turn."

Kamui glared, he lifted a card and looked at the ones in his hand, "Are you ready for this? Now I ride! Brutal Jack! I then call Tough Boy and Battleraizer. I activate Brutal Jack at the cost of one, it's all lock and loaded! " Kamui smirked and turned his Tough Boy onto it's side, "No more waiting around. Now I'm going to give you everything I got. First I activate Tough Boy and attack your vanguard! I then support Brutal Jack with Battleraizer, when Brutal Jack is supported by Battleraizer, his power goes up by 5000 and I'm going to activate his special ability which means Brutal Jack gets another 3000 attack power this turn."

Aichi gasped, he held up his hands and began to count, "umm, umm 5000 + 3000, divided by um…" he frowned and shyly looked at Ume, who squealed and shook her head, "Don't look at me, I suck at math." she snorted causing Taishi and Misaki to chuckle.

"With 22000 attack power. I attack!" Kamui yelled out and growled when Kai held up a trigger card, "I'm not done. With support from Shout I attack your vanguard again."

"I defend!" Kai yelled, holding a card out to the young boy who growled, "aww. That's lame. I return Battleraizer to my deck. Well, well. Looks like I hit you with double damage that last turn." he spoke cocky, Kai chuckled and lifted a card, "you did land a few attacks. But that is as far as you get. Dragon Knight, Nehalem, ride! And I call the Embodiment of Spear, Tahr. I activate Nehalem's skill by moving Tahr and Bahr into his soul stack. I can now search my deck for Embodiment of victory, Alephand call it out."

Kamui let out a gasp, his red eyes widen, "You got a grade three already!" he cried in surprise, Kai smirked almost evilly at the other, "getting your hands on a grade three before your opponent is a great way to win the game. Just encase you didn't know that."

"A grade t-three vanguard on only his f-first turn." Aichi gasped with amazement, Ume nodded in agreement, staring at the taller brunette, "it is impressive alright."

"Now. Lets have some fun. Shall we? I call upon Flame of Hope, Dragon Knight, Nehalem and Wyvern Guard, Barri to rear guard! Flame of Hope support Aleph! I land a attack on your vanguard." Kai spoke and lifted the first card of his twin drive and placed it into his hand, "I just scored myself a heal trigger, Aleph just got 5000 boost and I get to recover one from my damage bar. Since Aleph attack is a success, I get to drop one of my cards and then I'm able to lift another. I then attack Brutal Jack. Now it is your turn." he purred out, his eyes closing.

The young male with glasses gasped, his eyes widen with disbelief upon what he is seeing, "Is…is this really happening? Is Kamui losing?" he whimpered, his shoulders trembling, "You have to stop him, yo!"

"Hey! I'm working on it!" Kamui growled back, searching the cards within his hand, "I need to attack back with a grade three of my own…" he thought, his eyes flashing upon seeing the card he had drawn, "Alright! I ride !" he cried out, his crimson eyes twinkling brightly as he slammed the card down onto the mat.

Soft blue eyes widen, Aichi frowned his head swimming with confusion, "Why'd he do that? His last v-vanguard had so m-much more attack points o-over that unit…" he pouted, Taishi smiled and nodded his head, "It looks like he is going for grade over power."

"You can lose a little attack power for a twin drive." Misaki spoke, stepping up to the small group, Ume tilts her head with her arms wrapped around Sis-Cat. She looks back at the card-fight and glances between the two, unsure of what to expect.

Kamui breaths deeply, glaring at the older brunette, "First I activate 's special skill! I'm placing one card from my deck into his soul stack and I can un-flip one of my cards in my damage zone." he spoke, placing the card underneath 's card and then flipped the only turned over card in his damage zone, "and next! I call upon the King of Sword and dismiss BattleRazor! Moving Tough Boy to the back, I call another King of Sword! I support the King of Sword with Tough Boy and attack Aleph!"

"Alright. The attack goes through." Kai shrugged, nonchalant about the attack and easily placed a card into his damage zone.

"And now, attacks Aleph!" Kamui growled, throwing his left hand out dramatically, "Twin drive check! Nothing there! Awesome! A critical trigger! My standing King of Sword will take the extra 5000 attack power and 's damage just went up one more!"

Kai lowered his head, he lifted the first card, "Critical trigger. I give all the effects to Aleph! Second check. Empty."

"Using Shout as support, I will have King of Sword attack Aleph." Kamui said and frowned when Kai guarded. Aichi gasped upon seeing the card, "so that's a extra 5000 attack power, plus a 10000 shield power. The attack won't go through!"

Grunting, Kamui lowered his head with narrowed eyes, "Dang it! What a rotten time to pull a trigger. At least now I've managed to even out the playing field…" he thought, gazing down at both attack zones, feeling quite pleased with it. Both had four damage cards, "Great work Kamui! You've got him on his toes bro!" his friends cheered.

The brunette across him smirked, he closed his eyes and picked up a card, "Hhmp. It is not the time to celebrate." he hummed, his eyes shot open almost evilly he looks at the boy in front of him, "Ride the vanguard! Vortex Dragon!"

"A vortex dragon?" Aichi gasped upon seeing the card, "That's Kai's kind of card. Both powerful and hard to use." Taishi added in, his gray eyes narrowed as he looked at the battle mat. Blinking her bright green eyes, Ume leant forward in awe, "Vortex Dragon? That is so cool! With a card like that, I'm sure Kai is going to win." she gasped out, "Not that I thought Kai wouldn't win at first anyway…" She thought to herself and laughed nervously when Kamui glared at her from his place and yelled a quick 'who's side are you on' she rubbed the back of her head with her left arm and her eyes closed.

"By placing the first card from my deck into his soul stack, I raise Vortex Dragon's power by 2000. Supporting with Barri, I attack with Nehalem." Kai said and watched with almost bored eyes as Kamui guarded the attack, shrugging Kai rolled his head to the side, "Suit yourself. With support from Hope of Flame, I attack with Vortex Dragon, he will swing at you."

Kamui gasped, he moved to guard with a card but stopped, "w-why is he hesitating l-like that?" Aichi wondered, watching the small boy with large concerned eyes, "he's in a tough spot right now with four cards sitting in his damage zone. He is backed into a corner. This could be the final attack." Taishi explained to the smaller bluenette boy, Aichi's eyes flashed with a sudden-brave glint, he nodded his head with understanding, "Hmm. If Kai gets critical trigger from either twin drive then this battle is over. So the best move is too defended, right?" he asked, looking at Taishi who nodded, "yeah. But take a look at Kamui's hand." Turning his head back around, Aichi looked at the boys hand and frowned a little, "He only has two cards. This late within the game, using up what cards you have may be your downfall."

"I got it. I'm going to use King of Sword to take the attack and I'm going to guard with Shining Lady!" Kamui spoke, holding the card out while Kai smirked wider, "guarding are we? Perfect. I'll check the twin drive. First check." the brunette said, lifting the card to show Kamui who grinned, "nothing there!" he nodded his head. Kai lifted the next card, "Critical trigger activated."

Kamui sighed in relief, "Oh yeah! Looks like I made the right choose." he cheered gleeful. Kai hummed, his green eyes sparkled as they looked at the boy, "indeed you did. If you had be afraid to play from your hand this battle may have been over." he spoke darkly, teasing the boy more, "You don't need to explain it to me like I'm some newbie. Draw! I'm activating 's ability. I don't have any damage to flip over but I'll soul stack anyway. Now I call Brutal Jack and with the cost of one, I put him into high gear! Supporting Jack with Shout, I lunge a attack at your dragon!"

"It looks like the attack went through. Damage check. That's 5000 attack power to my vanguard and one more card for me." Kai spoke, lifting the card to his hand, Kamui's red eyes looks at Kai's damage and smiled brightly, "Looks like you've got five damage. I only need to hit you one more. attacks your vanguard for the win!"

Aichi gasped with awe, his blue eyes widen as he looked at the mat, "With the damage trigger activated, Vortex Dragon is way to powerful." Misaki nodded her head, her long lavender hair bouncing along with her movements, "yes, but if twin drive pays off, it just might work." Aichi nodded in understanding, "I see. Just because this attack looks bad, if he gets a good trigger, he'll win." Taishi shook his head in disagreement, "I don't think Kai's going to fall for that."

"I guard." Kai spoke, lifting a card, "With a damage shield in place, that attack isn't going to work. It is totally harmless." Taishi shrugged as Aichi tilted his head to the side, "so much for lucky draw…"

"Checking twin drive." Kamui frowned, lifting the first card to find it had no trigger, "no triggers revealed this time."

Ume stared at the boy before gasping causing the three around her to look at her, "I got it! It would be great if the attack lands, but Kamui isn't trying to do that. He wants cards to guard with if necessary." she smiled brightly as the cat in her arms meowed in agreement, "good strategy…" Aichi says thoughtful.

"Using Tough Boy to support King of Swords to attack your dragon!" Kamui yells and clenches his teeth when Kai guarded once more, "Kai defended everything. Unreal, amazing.." Aichi speaks with pure amazement on his face and looks at Kamui when he began to laugh, "looks like we're still even."

Kai closed his eyes and reached for a card, "I draw. Placing another card into my soul stack, Vortex Dragon's power increases by 2000! I call the dragon Knight Nehalem and Wyvern Guard, Barri." Kamui chuckled, "let me guess. You attack Vortex Dragon to check the twin drive~" he sings out the last word as Kai shook his head, "as usually you've guessed wrong. With that last soul card there is now eight cards in my soul stack." he said, watching in amusement as Kamui's eyes widen and looked at the Vortex Dragon's card, "wait that means…"

"Wait? What's that?" Aichi asked, his left eyebrow raised in confusion. Ume frowned, her eyes shimmered as she tilts her head to the side, "um…with eight cards in your soul stack, you are given a soul blast…er…right?" she asked, looking at Taishi who grinned and rested his arm back on top of her head, making the young girl groan, "Little Red is right. With eight cards, Kai can use a soul blast."

"Burning wrath of the Vortex. Catastrophe! Do you see what I've done? The surface of Cray shakes underneath the power of my dragon! The flames of destruction within can no longer be tamed! Clean this land as it breaths within your flames! Vortex Dragon. Sending three of your rear guards to the drop zone." Kai purred, Ume stared wide eye as the cards on Kai's side looks as if they're on fire, burning brightly while the three cards he had sent to the drop zone almost looked like they were going to blast away, "Let's end this! I support Nehalem with Barri and attack !"

Kamui's eyes widen and his mouth dropped, "With 16000 attack power!" he gasped and looked down at his cards, "None of these cards can defend. There's only one hope…" he thought, reaching for the top card of his deck, "damage check…my trigger check…fails…"

"Then this is the end." Kai spoke firmly, "With the support of Flame of Hope, my Vortex Dragon lunches the final attack against ."

"Damage check…" Kamui lifted up a card and gasped, he ducked his head with shaking shoulders, "I lost."

Kai closed his eyes, he lifted his deck up, "Thats all you got?" he asked. Kamui growled, his stomach tingled with anger, "Hey! I demand a rematch!" Kai opened his eyes and looks at Kamui, "I pass." he spoke with a tiresome sigh, "I've seen what kind of player you are. You don't deserve to fight me again."

Ume blinks her eyes, they narrowed and without looking at the brunette, she stomped past him. Letting Sis-Cat jump from her arms, she walked up to the trembling child and hugged him, Kamui jumped with surprise and looked up, he sighed with relief upon seeing her smiling at him, "It doesn't matter if you lost Kamui. I still think you did great."

"Aichi Sendou. So are you going to leave me alone like I asked?" Kai's voice drawn her attention, turning her head Ume stared as Aichi stepped to the side allowing the older boy to walk past him with his hands in his pockets, "Yeah…I'm sorry for being nosey and everything. That isn't like me, I'll leave you alone if that is what you want." Aichi breathed, he closed his eyes and after a few seconds they reopened with a bright and friendly smile, "But you'll see me around the card shop because I want to battle you again!"

"Your still too weak."

Aichi nodded, his eyes sparkled brightly, "I know. Since I don't have the skills to battle you right now, I'm going to work really hard to get better and then one day I will be strong enough and our fight will be epic."

Kai looked at Aichi for a couple of seconds, it almost looked like he is touched by the small speech, "Keep dreaming." he snorted and walked out the store.

"He needs to mellow out." Misaki stated, she yawned a little bored of this already, "Yeah no kidding." Taishi laughed in agreement.

Shin tilts his head, his glasses flashing in the light, "Well, Card Capital sure has some amazing card fighters. Boy, I can't wait!"

~#~#~#~

Ume yawned, she rubbed her green eyes as she walked down the school hallway. It is a great day, she never expected that a ribbon could change her life so much, but then again she never thought a card game would either. Within just one month, she had became so close to the person she had fallen for all because of a game. It is like a dream. Pinching herself, Ume laughed and shook her head, "de~fintely not a dream!" she smiled walking down another hallway. Yes, she is in a great mood. Sure, most people still don't talk to her, believing she is still mute, but thanks to Aichi, Misaki, Taishi, heck even Morikawa helped her with her self-confidences. Now she would fight for the teacher to pick her to answer a question, she grinned remembering how everyone had looked at her in disbelief this morning when the teacher chose her to answer the question and she spoke bravely without a stutter, her voice loud and firm. The small break given to them, for the first time in a month she didn't have the chance to go down the hallway to the boys class as two girls from her class requested her to side with them.

Ume twisted a lock of black hair around her finger, she looked out the window of the school. The two girls had been incredibly nice to her, questioned her about her 'muteness' and why she never spoke before. Ume had simply said that before she didn't have the great friends she has now, this resulted her being invited to spend the small lunch break with them whenever she wanted. At first she thought about taking them up on that, but then she rethought it and told them that she has some friends waiting for her, so maybe another time. The girls understood. Ume never thought girls in her class would be so understanding, heck she never thought girls her age could be so nice, have you seen the things on T.V?

"Ume! Yo bunny girl!" a voice yelled from down the hallway. Ume frowns, knowing only one person who calls her that because of her green ribbon, glaring at Morikawa down the hallway, Ume's eyes soften upon seeing the boy jumping around excitedly. Running the rest of the way, she slowed to a stop and tilts her head in confusion, "What's the matter?"

Morikawa shirked in excitement, he throw his arm around her shoulders and dragged her closer to Aichi and Izaki, "Check it out!" he shirked, holding a poster out in front of her. Ume's green eyes scans the paper before blinking, "A Card Capital, vanguard tournament?" she asked, turning her head to look up at Morikawa, "I went by the shop on my way to school and picked it up!" Morikawa grinned while Aichi rubbed the back of his head, "oh y-yeah. I remember you telling me about it on the train." Morikawa nodded, shaking the poster around, "oh yeah! The tournament is between the Card Capital's most powerful players!"

"I wonder…if Kai will be there…" Aichi thought out loud, he rocked his body back with a thoughtful expression, "hard to tell. He doesn't exactly come to Card Capital all the time…so he might not enter."

"Regardless of who is going to enter. I think we all know who is going to win, I hope I know who you guys are after I become Vanguard champion." Morikawa laughed prideful, turning his head with his hand on his hip, a smug look came over his face. Ume rolled her eyes as she looked at the boy, "or a vanguard ninja will become the champion." she smirked as he began to sob dramatically, saying she never supports him. Aichi innocently took the flyer and read through it with a troubled pout, "it says t-that the deadline is t-tomorrow afternoon…"

Izaki took the poster and held it out, "Vood thing you're not entering. Well that's what you said, remember? The other day." he smiled as Aichi laughed nervously with a weary smile. Morikawa grinned widely and swiftly switched from the dark stormy cloud mode to the happy go lucky boy everyone knows him to be, he pumped his arms in the air happily, "Right. He'll be to busy cheering me on from the sidelines." the boy grinned, slapping the bluenette on the back and began to walk towards the exit, "better go practice my victory speech!"

Ume rolled her eyes, she placed her hand onto her hip as she watched the extremely cheery boy walk off, mumbling softly to himself. She waved lightly as Izaki ran away also, sighing she turned her head around to look at Aichi and noticed the inner-fight glint in his eyes.

"Does Aichi-kun want to enter the tournament too?"

"Alright folks. The Card Capital tournament is a special event! It only happens twice a year! There are two! Count them, two spots left! Is there a fighter among us who think they're up to the challenge." Shin's voice echoed around the small bluenette's head as he stepped into the store the next day. It is a beautiful Saturday. Dressed in his favourite short sleeved blue jacket, red sweater and skinny jeans, his big blue eyes stared timidly at the man standing in the middle, holding a sigh up sheet and pen. Aichi breathed in deeply as he looked around the people in the store, his heart thumped loudly as he listened to everyone's words, the more he heard them the more his confidences went down the sink, especially when one spoke about having amazing players this year, "m-maybe this isn't a g-good idea.."

Ume hummed as she walked down the road, the green ribbon holding her hair back bounced as she walked. Dressed in her favourite strap white and green frilly shirt that fluttered around her waist with jeans and light brown school-shoes. Hey, they look cute with her outfit. Smiling happily, she's excited to find out who is signing up for the tournament when she suddenly noticed a creatin blue haired boy backing out the store, "Aichi-kun? Are you signing up today?" she called out to him, running the rest of the length and stopping next to him with her hand to her chest, she smiles brightly when he shyly looks at her.

"Oh…I…um…" Aichi nervously shifts his weight from one foot to the other. Noticing this, Ume tilts her head with a concerned expression, "what's the matter? I thought you was going too try. You're one of the best players I've seen in a long time." she frowns, crossing her arms behind her back and rocking forward and allowing her body to lower just a bite so she could see his face that is directed to the ground, "Aichi! You're here to enter the tournament, right?" another voice called out, turning her head Ume watched as Shin grinned down at them, his glassing sparkling brightly as he held a pen up, "with the way you've been playing recently, I think you stand a chance just as everyone else, all you have to do is to sign this."

Ume jumps when Aichi swiftly bows lowly, "I'm s-sorry! It'sscaryingmejustthinkingaboutit!" he spoke super fast, Ume found her head hurting just trying to keep up with his words.

"Here. Give this to Tokura for me." a voice spoke from behind Ume, the girl without looking quickly nodded and took the paper, her eyes clued to the bluenette in front of her. Without moving her head, she lifted her left arm to Misaki holding the paper and when the paper wasn't taken, she looked at the girl and noticed she is just staring at her blankly. Frowning, she raised her eyebrow with confusion, "what?" she asked and when Ume doesn't get an answer, she turns her eyes with half-lidded eyes and froze upon seeing who is standing behind her. Green eyes widen with disbelief, "You've got to be kidding me!"

Kai smirks at her, his eyes flashing teasingly and looks up at Shin, "You can count me in." Shin grins widely, his glasses glows as he leans forward, "whoa! Really! I'm so glad you can joins us!" Kai nods his head, he sighs and roll his head to the side, "I heard you have some pretty good players that I haven't played yet. I just hope they bring their A-game."

Ume still flabbergasted, looks at the paper in her hands, "Well folks, only one spot left!" Shin cheered loudly as the young dark haired girl was able to finally give the paper to Misaki who quickly entered Kai into the tournament, "So who wants it? First comes, first served."

"That would be me!" Aichi's voice ranged out firmly, Ume looked at the boy and blinked her eyes uncertain if this is really Aichi, he sounded so different then before. Ume watches Aichi as quickly as he could fill out the paper, "just put it on the counter when you're done, okay?" Misaki said uncaring, returning to her book, Aichi smiled as he held the paper up, "All finshed!" he called out, placed the paper down right at the exact same moment as somebody else placed their own down.

Everyone turned their heads to see a tall man with long curls of white hair and bright amber eyes behind a pair of glasses, he smirks as he looks at Aichi, "well-well. Looks like I got my papers in, right before you did." he says, touching his black glass and turns his attention to Misaki, "Miss. Please see if my papers are acceptable."

Misaki slowly nods and looks down at the papers, her eyes runs over them, "Excuse me sir. The final spot was supposed to be mine and I really want it." Aichi begged, looking at the taller man with pleading eyes, "That's a really sad story kid but you heard the manager. It's first come, first serve; if you want too play you have to prove you submitted first. So! Can you show me what hour, what minute did you hand yours in, huh? Make me a believer." he spoke, leaning forward, "either show me prove or get out of my face kid. And take that late appreciation with you~"

Aichi's eyes lowered and he whimpered, he nodded and slowly turned around. The boy was just about to walk away when Ume grabbed him by the back of his shirt, "actually! You handed in your appreciation at the exact same time of Aichi-kun, so if he is late then so would yours." she spoke, glaring at the extremely rude person in front of her, "now-now! All this arguing isn't getting us anywhere!" Shin smiled, walking up to the group, his glasses shimmering, "I've got it!" he grinned and spun around and wrote something down before showing a sigh to them.

"A special event! A fight for the last spot?" Ume read out and looked at the man, "He sure knows how to put on a show…" she thought with a soft sigh, crossing her arms as she stared at the sign. She lifted her head with a somewhat annoyed expression when Taishi placed his arm over her head, "I wouldn't be surprise if Shin had this all planned from the start! He did make that sign pretty fast."

"Oh that note, the winner of this battle will be able to enter the shop tournament. How does that sound?" he asked, looking at the two standing on both sides of the vanguard fight table with a mat laid out. The white head man smirked, smugly he pulled out his deck, "this seems like a good chance to practice my deck before the big day." Aichi frowned, he looked at Kai before flinching as he remembered what the boy had said a couple of days ago, he turned his head back around and frowned even more with a sigh, "Kai said I was weak. That I didn't deserve to fight him…But if I can enter myself into the tournament I can prove him wrong! That's the kind chance I'm willing to fight for!" the boy thought, looking at the strange white haired man in front of him with determined eyes.

Ume pouted, she puffed out her cheeks with her arms crossed with annoyances, "Come on Taishi! What am I? Your stand!" she growled, looking up at him with fiery green eyes, the blonde grinned down at her with a teasingly glint in his blue eyes, "why of cause Little Red." he chuckled as she grow even more annoyed. Taishi turned his head and noticed how the brunette is watching the boy, "for somebody who doesn't care for Aichi Sendou, you sure are watching him closely." he smirked, hearing this, all annoyances washed away and Ume looked at the brunette to find he was in fact watching Aichi very closely.

Kai looked at the two and then back to the card fight, "I'm actually wondering about that other guy. I've never seen him play before, lets just see if he's up to the challenge." Ume looked back at the white haired man and grunted, "well if he battles as he does his hair, then he has to be rubbish. That hair is sooooooooo out right now." she grumbled, ignoring the look, both older boys gave her.

"Stand up! My Avatar!"

Aichi blinks down at the card the man had just placed, "that unit isn't like anything I've seen before." he spoke, the other smirked and chuckled, "giving that uncertain stare of yours, I have to say you've never played against a Megacolony deck before. I'm going to enjoy this fight, just as I'm going to enjoy watching you lose it."

The bluenette boy looks down, he blinks his eyes and looks at the man in the eye. It is almost as if somebody else has taken the boys place, "I'm first!" he said firmly and lifted a card, he looks at his cards and quickly placed one down, "I ride Wingal! Using Barcgal skill, I move him to the rear circle."

"H-How is that guy able to move his Vanguard." a small child asked with wide awe eyes, Shin smiled and looked down at the child, "that ability can be used when another Paladin comes into the field. That is why Barcgal is a great start out. This is a great battle to show how Aichi has grown." he spoke prideful, the child gasped and looked back at the fight, they're eyes shined brightly as they looked up at Aichi.

"Barcgal! Call your friends!" Aichi called out, turning Barcgal onto his side, "with his ability I am able to search my deck for Flogal and then I can call her to the rear guard circle." he says and quickly shovels his cards and places them back onto the mat, "that is it for my turn."

"Forgive me for not understanding. But why would you bother creating such a weak group of units?" the man said, drawing five cards out, "I ride Phantom Black and I call the Embodiment of Armor, Bahr." Aichi frowned, his eyes narrowed down at the card, "what? But Bahr isn't a Megacolony unit." he grunted out and glared when the white haired man chuckled amused, "I like to mix and match my units. Megacolony is my favourite clan for sure, but mixing together other units from other clans, I can take the strongest units from each clan giving my deck the over all power advantage. Now Bahr Wingal. Attacking." Aichi grinds his teeth together and lifts a card to check for a damage trigger, the other laughed upon seeing none, "next Phantom Black attacking. Can not forget the trigger. Check." he purred out when he found none, but doesn't care for it. Aichi checks for another damage trigger and sees none, he places it into his damage zone, "that's two damage. Looks like this game will be over pretty quick~"

Ume growled, she stuck her tongue out childishly, "I hate how he talks! He sounds like a damn pansy!" she huffed as Taishi laughed upon hearing her comment while Kai simply allowed a small smirk to graces his slips as the girl began to mimic a few of the silly things the man had said.

Aichi narrows his eyes, he couldn't allow this man to back him into a corner. He has to win or he'll never fight Kai, "my turn." he spoke lowly and drawn a new card, "stand up my avatar! Ride Blaster Blade! I call Gallatin to the field and Little Sage, Marron as well." he called out, ignoring the look that came over the other players face, "supporting Gallatin with Barcgal and I'm attacking Phantom Black!" the other clenched his teeth together and glared back at the blue haired boy, "I'm checking for a damage trigger." he says and frowns upon seeing none, "I activate Flogal's ability to power up Blaster Blade. Here comes another attack against your vanguard! Checking for a drive trigger." lifting a card, Aichi revealed that he does not have a drive trigger, the white haired man quickly checked a damage trigger and once agains got none. Aichi looked down at his mat and nods to himself, "finally I attack using Marron!" Aichi sighed when the other guarded.

"Look. He was able to even out the score." the same small child gasped out with amazement.

The white haired man smirks wider and closes his eyes for a few seconds, "I am so glad you aren't as weak as I originally thought you were. Now beating you is going to feel so much better. Bloody Hercules ride! And here is another Bloody Hercules to deal with, I move Bahr back and into that empty spot I summon Karma Queen. Karma Queen activate counter blast! This is my favourite ability." he purred out, paying the cost of two, "preventing Gallatin from standing up next turn~" Aichi stared wide eyes with disbelief, "You what!?" the man smirked even wider, revealing almost pointy teeth, unaware that he now had the full attention everyone within the store, "feel the wrath of the Queen! Haha now you see the true power of Megacolony, in order to control the battle field, we trap the other players best units! Preventing you from attacking, I practically see my victory! Blaster Blade is staring down the attack coming from a Bloody Hercules!" he yelled, uncaring as Aichi guarded, "You stopped one. But lets see how you handle a attack coming from a vanguard Bloody Hercules." he purred, watching as Aichi checked for a damage check and groaned upon finally none, "now. Supporting with Bahr, I attack with Karma Queen, her sting is directed at Blaster Blade." Aichi growled, he looks down at his deck and checks for another damage trigger to find none once again, "Enjoy your turn. It may be your last."

Kai snorted and turned from the fight, both Ume and Taishi looked at Kai with confusion, "What sup?" Taishi asked, turning his head around to look at the brunette who turned to look at both, his eyes flashing dangerously, "the guy with glasses isn't that good. He acts so smart but he hasn't figured why Aichi is summoning all the units. The Royal Paladin are about to shine." Ume let out a soft 'huh' and looked back at the man, "so not only has he got bad hair, but he also sucks at figuring out strategies?" she asked and Kai nodded, "yes." Ume simply grinned at the fact she had got the 'cool' Kai to agree with the fact the man has bad hair.

"Draw." Aichi speaks, taking a card and looking at the four in his hand, "it's finally time. Lead me the strength I need. Please." he thought and breathed deeply, he lifted a card and slammed it down, "Enter the fight! Kneel in front of your King! Ride the King of Knights, Alfred!" Ume watched with wide eyes, it looked as if the card Aichi had just placed down had erupted with a bright blueness, she knew Aichi could see it but it surprised her when she noticed Kai also saw it because he, Aichi and herself are the only ones who looked away from the brightness of it. She looked back at the fight upon hearing the shock words about Aichi having the best card in the Royal Paladin clan, "I move Marron back and then call Solitary Knight, Gancelot!" he called out, the other stared wide eye at the cards, "with Alfred and Gancelot, then I am…oh no!" he cried out, Aichi spoke without mercy, "Alfred marches into battle against your vanguard, Bloody Hercules! First off, I need to check my twin drive!" Aichi spoke, turning the card to show no trigger, "and then the second trigger!" and smiled upon lifting a card with a trigger, not just any trigger either, a critical trigger, "a great timing for it! Now for effects, Alfred's damage just got a plus one and then, Gancelot gets the attack power boost! As well, Alfred has his own ability! For each Paladin in play he gains a extra 2000 attack power. And look, my whole field is filled with Paladins!" Alfred gets a 10000 attack bonus, sending his power up to 20000, "My royal Paladins units are finally working together!"

The other stepped back before quickly checking his damage trigger, "now for the next one. Oh joy! That trigger just boosted up my Bloody Hercules by 5000 points!" Aichi tilts his head as he looked at the card, "15000 power? Alright then, in that case I'm going to have Mallon support Gancelot and lunch an attack on Blood Hercules!" he called out and frowned when the other guarded the attack, "sorry kid but you're just not good enough."

"There's no way you can win! I have my own power! Rise up! The eight legs of evil! Hell Spider!" the man yelled and payed the cost of two more damage, "Hell Spider activate his ability which means on your next turn, Gallatin won't be able to stand up!" Aichi growled, he clenched his fists, "Hello Spider has that ability too?" the man smirks gleeful at the frustration that appeared on Aichi's face, "it really is unfortunately I can't use it on your vanguard. It would be so much fun if I could get Alfred in a web. I call a pair of Phantom Blacks to the rear guards! I support Bloody Hercules with Phantom Black in an attack on Alfred!" he purred out and Aichi quickly guarded with a card, "let's see how you like this one, Hell Spider with the support of Phantom Black and once again I attack your vanguard!" Aichi quickly guarded again, trying desperately to keep his damage low, "I guard with Iseult and activate her special ability which completely protects Alfred from all damage!" Aichi calls out loudly, "fine then! I check my twin drive!" the man growled loudly as both drives are empty, "whatever! With my last move I send Karma Queen supported with Bahr!" Aichi guarded once more with his heal card, Elaine, "even that couldn't break through. All those attacks are for nothing! This isn't going as I planned it!"

Taishi let out a 'whoa-oh' as Ume laughed, "oooooh! Drama Queen~" she sang out, amusing both boys further.

Aichi draws another card and looks down, "I retire Gallatin and summon Wingal instead."

"W-Why did he replaces a grade 2 with a lower grade?" the small child whispered shyly, looking up at Shin who chuckled and gently patted him on the head, "Gallatin wouldn't be able to attack but Wingal can."

"He's got three attack again!" the man thought, eyes flashing dangerously behind his glass. Aichi ignored the expression on the mans face, "With support of Marron, Gancelot attack Hell Spider!" he called out watching with a raised eyebrow as the man guarded with one card and used one of his Blood Hercules to take the attack for Hell Spider, "haha! You're attack fails underneath my amazing guarding!" the man cheered and Aichi resisted the urge to roll his eyes, "oh well. Wingal attacks supported by Barcgal attack your vanguard!" the man quickly checks for a damage trigger and growls when he comes up empty, "my last attack! Your tiny spider is no match for King Alford! My Royal Paladin leads their power to Alfred, giving him an extra 10000 points, boosting his power up to 20000!"

"So then…Aichi-kun won?" Ume asked unsure, looking at the bluenette. Kai nodded his head with a soft 'uh-hu' Ume blinks her wide green eyes and smiled brightly, she reached up and cupped Taishi's face. The blonde blinks before groaning as he realizes what's going on, Ume lifts his head before running forward sending the poor boy to the ground, "aww. Come on Little Red. Why do you always so that?" he groaned, rubbing his head as Kai smirked and held out his hand to help the boy up, with a pout Taishi grabbed the hand and allowed the brunette to pull him up. Ume ran towards Aichi and throw her arms around his shoulders, "you did it Aichi-kun! You won! You've got the last place!" she laughed joyful as the bluenette smiles happily and nods, "Yeah! I did!"

"Who's t-that? His girlfriend?" the small child asked, hearing this Ume blinks and her face turned a pale pink colour. Ume quickly detached herself from Aichi and stood from him, her head lowered and playing with her shirt. Oblivious to what had just happen, Aichi blinks and stares at Ume, confused about her strange behaviour, "why did she move like that? Do I smell?" he thought to himself with a small innocent pout.

Shin grinned, hands on his hips, he looks between the two card players. Aichi is so proud of himself while the other is stunned, "that is a great battle!" he laughed and grabbed Aichi's arm and held it up, "there you go folks, Aichi Sendou just won the last spot in the tournament!" hearing this Aichi blinks with wide blue eyes and a open mouth before making a dopy grin with rosy cheeks.

"That is an interesting battle we had. With that deck, the rest of the tournament players better watch their back. Basted on my correlations, I'd say you have a 85% chances at winning the whole thing~"

Aichi looked at the white haired man and rubbed the back of his head, "T-thanks. But j-just how did y-you come up with t-that?" he asked with a small smile, "never mind that! It was great battling you." he smiled and shook hands with Aichi.

Ume tilts her head, she looks at the white haired man, "Hey dude. I want to give you advise…get a new hair-cut."

"Seriously man!"

"U-Ume-chan!"

* * *

_Ume Hikari_

_Gender: A female middle school student_

_Age: 15 years old_

_Birthday: 18th September_

_Personality_

_Ume has a small body but a strong spirit. She is a very simple and innocent young girl who believed that life was something to be treasured. She would innocently approach friends or foes due to her childlike curiosity. Her gentle heart gave Ume the strength to always trust in people's good intentions. Thus, she did not bear a grudge towards anyone who wronged her. Ume has a strong will to follow through on things once she makes a decisions, she is sarcastic, cynical, and prideful, she is also strong and is not afraid to speak her mind, often feisty with fiery comebacks. Ume gets upset easily. Ume is also brutally honest, typically when she is lashing out at someone. She is clumsy and tries to hide that too. Ume is socially awkward, so at first she doesn't talk to anybody but after meeting Misaki Tokura, she grow braver. Because her eyes are simply 'big' and that she didn't want to draw attention to herself, she hid behind her hair which Aichi and Misaki both said that they liked her eyes and that she should keep her hair pulled off her eyes more often to which Ume has been doing ever since._

_Ume cares for all her friends, especially Aichi as she had a massive crush on him when they first met in the first grade, over time this has developed into strong emotions. Ume also doesn't think Kai is a bad guy, she believes he is just hiding behind a mask. Ume is also a massive Kai Vanguard fan. Misaki is like her older sister as Taishi is like her older brother. She finds Emi and Kamui adorable. Ume loves children and hopes to be a great mother_.

* * *

**_Well? What do you think? Is it alright or plain bad? I hope to hear from you soon!_**

**_Don't forget to REVIEW, FAVORUITE AND FOLLOW_**


	5. Chapter 5

_****__**A big thanks to ******__4fireking, MCRDanime, MisaQ x Kai fan, Rolo-chan, Akihiro1123 and Guest for reviewing and reading. I hope you'll stick with me during this.^^_

_**I am a rookie at writing. Please do tell me if I've wrote something wrong, I will fix it as soon as I see your message^^**_

_**A big fat thank you to my lovely beta, StuffStuff! Thank you so much^^**_

_**Enjoy**_

* * *

Chapter 5

The small dark haired female walked slowly down the road and eventually she began to run, faster and faster. Ume was excited about what today would bring. Finally the week is over and Card Capital tournament begins! Dressed in her normal white and green frilly shirt that had an row of buttons down her chest surrounded by green frills and since it is a pretty hot day she wore black jean shorts. The green-ribbon-donned-rabbit bounced as she ran, her short black hair fluttered along behind her, her green eyes sparkles as sees the person standing outside Card Capital, "Aichi-kun!" she called out, waving.

Hearing his name, Aichi jumps and turns his head around to the female running towards him. Dressed in the normal red turtle neck sweater with jeans and the navy blue elbow jacket, his blue eyes widen upon seeing her before he smiles and mimics her actions, "Good morning~"

Ume giggles, her cheeks stained pink. She slows too a stop in front of him and pants to catch her breath. Closing her eyes and breathing in deeply, she looks at him and smiles brightly, "I hope you're ready for today! I'll be cheering you on. Kay?" she asked gently, tilting her head to the side making the sun above them catch her features. Aichi's eyes widen and he gapes before nodding his head with his eyes closed with a light pink blush appearing across his face, "kay."

"Oniisan! Oneesan! What's sup?" a childish voice sang out from behind the two.

Both teenagers looked too find the young black haired boy with crimson eyes grinning up at them with his two friends standing on either side. Dressed in his normal long sleeved shirt with a red jean body warmer and green jeans, "Oneesan?" Ume repeated before grinning down at the boy who is trying to act 'cool'. Ume hugged him tightly, her arms circled around his shoulders as she laughed gleeful, "That's so cute! You called me big sister!"

"Aww! Come on Oneesan! Must you do this every time?" Kamui groaned, struggling against the older female who squealed once more and only hugged him tighter, muttering 'Oneesan' over and over. Kamui huffed and looked at Aichi over Ume's arm, "you're here to fight in the tournament right? You do know the action's inside, right?" he asked, lifting a eyebrow at the bluenette who stuttered out words and ended up blushing, "is anybody coming along to cheer you on? Other than Oneesan?"

"What d-do you m-mean?" Aichi asked in confusion. Ume removes her arms from the mini-spiky boy and stepped back in thought, she crosses her arms and pouts, "I'm talking about your sister! Of cause!" Kamui said brightly, his cheeks turning a pale pink colour and Ume groaned upon seeing the look that over came Aichi's face, he really can't see it? "Err…n-no…she's b-back at home. I'm n-not even sure if s-she interested in V-Vanguard." the bluenette admitted with confusion.

Kamui looks hurt at first before he grins and swings his hand around in a fist, "r-really? So she's the kind of girl that likes to be fashionable late, huh?"

Ume smiles, she rocks on the balls of her feet with her arms behind her back, watching as the smaller boy pushed Aichi into the store, said bluenette is mumbling things about Emi coming today and that he is sure she wasn't going too. He trailed off and ended with a gasp of amazement. Blinking with excitement, Ume rushed in after them and stopped upon seeing a large white sign. Walking towards the sign, she scanned it, the sign itself had four large boxes labelled A,C,B,D with other boxes creating some kind of chart. All the way to the Card Capital winner.

The store itself is filled with many people who looked at them just as the group stepped into the store. Ume's eyes widen upon seeing the ones inside, Morikawa and Izaki are here, Morikawa in a red shirt with skinny jeans while Izaki is in a white and black stripy shirt and jeans. Misaki still in her high school uniform and Shin in a green high collar sweater with blue jeans, "It's my ninja dude." she though to herself, remembering what she had said to Morikawa last week, the dark haired girl turned her head and watched Kamui and his two friends run into the store excitedly.

"E-Everyone is s-staring at me…it's n-nothing like the C-Card Capital I'm used to…" Aichi mumbled softly, his bright blue eyes lowering as he pressed his hand against his heart.

"Hey Aichi, Ume-chan!" a soft voice called out behind the two, both teens jumped and spun around to find the little blonde haired girl smiling up at the two holding a basket. Ume smiles brightly and jumped when Kamui suddenly slid across the floor on his knees with his hands pressed to his chest, "Emi! You're here!" he squealed out, his red eyes flashing and Ume swore they flashed into hearts for a split second. Emi tilts her head, her wide blue eyes stared blankly at the boy, "What is he blabbing on about? Now that I think about it, I keep bumping into him on the streets and he always has flowers. He's such a weirdo!" she thought with a small frown.

Kamui leaped to his feet, he grinned brightly and throw his arm out, "Right this way Emi! The crowd awaits~" he sang out loud. Emi simply looked up at Aichi and Ume with confusion, both laughed nervously down at her and Emi pouts before slowly and awkwardly walked the way the boy wanted her to walk.

"Now. All those who are fighting in the tournament please come gather over here." Shin called out, standing next to the massive white sigh which had a table in front of it. The man with glasses smiles brightly and places his hand onto his hip.

Ume hummed as she walked to the side of the massive crowd that circled around the fight tables. She looked at the ones playing in the tournament, watching as they walked forward before she noticed nobody had used her as a stand yet, frowning she searched for the annoying blonde, "Where's Kai and Taishi?" she thought to herself and looked over at three small kids, she laughed nervously at the annoyed expression on Emi's face, "Don't worry! We'll look after Emi for yah whaile you're becoming the shop winner!" the small female with green hair pulled back into a pony-tail with bright amber eyes behind a pair of large round glasses smiles, "You go for it, Yo!" the other boy called out with short brown hair, parts of it pulled up into a pony-tail on top of his head.

Kamui grinned and nodded, giving the two a thumbs up, "Good! Make sure nothing happens to her while I'm gone!" Aichi laughed nervously with a pale face, he looked at Kamui, "what c-could possibly happen h-here?" Kamui simply grinned at the words and made a sign with his hand, "Listen up! Your sister is the most prettiest girl I've ever seen. I'm not taking any chances. Got that."

Emi grunts and looks around the crowd, her blue eyes scans the faces before noticing a certain female standing to the side watching with wide eyes and pink cheeks, a smile appeared across her face, "Thanks, but I don't need to be babysat." she mumbles and walks away from them towards the female, Kamui stared with teary eyes, "why Emi!" he sniffed, Emi simply ignored his cries and smiled brightly up at the female, "Hey Ume-chan! Can I stand with you?" she asked brightly and the dark haired girl looks at Emi and smiles with a nod and a soft 'kay'. Both girls turned their heads when they heard a familiar yelp followed by a groan, they gasped upon seeing Aichi trip over his feet, "Aichi!"

Suddenly the glass doors opened to reveal the two boys Ume had just been thinking about, Kai stood with his head dipped, eyes closed with his hands in his pockets. Aichi pushed himself up onto shaky legs, "h-hey…Kai…" he mumbled gently as the brunette just walked straight past him. Aichi stared after him with his lips opened, "Kai doesn't l-look nervous at a-all, I wish I w-was the same w-way."

"Now that the players are all here. It is time for us to officially kick off the Card Capital Tournament!" Shin finally called out, his glasses shined brightly as he scanned the card-players, everyone around him erupted into cheers, "these sixteen players will play for the top sport and will emerge as the Card Capital champion! It goes as saying that the players are not allowed to get any advise from anybody watching. I'll be acting as the referee and the stranded rules for a Vanguard tournament will be in affect, anyone who breaks the rules may be rejected. Please, keep that in mind. That should be it, unless I'm forgetting something?" he asked, looking around before noticing Morikawa had his hand raised, "Yes! Umm…Morikawa?"

The dark haired boy grinned brightly, he coughed and walked towards Shin and snatched away the mike, "Listen~" he cried out with glee, spinning around to look at the crowd. Shin gasped and held his hands out shakily, "Hang on. You can't…" he trailed with a sigh, Ume groaned and rolled her eyes, slapping her forehead with disbelief, "Why am I friends with him again?" she sighed listening to his 'speech' Emi giggled and looked at her with big round blue eyes and a bright smile. Ume watched Kamui run forward and grabbed the mike and yelled out to Emi, "I wonder what he wanted to do with you after he won." she smirked, already knowing he wanted to ask the young girl out, Emi shrugged with a somewhat bored expression.

"Kai looks so calm…and those two looks like they're have a blast…she's as calm as ever too…" Aichi thought with a troubled frown, looking at Kai, Kamui, Morikawa and Misaki, he sighed and then looked at Izaki who smiled at him "why am I the only one w-who is nervous? M-Maybe I shouldn't have entered…"

Shin breathed deeply, he held the mike high, "Good news people, the microphone survived the wresting match. Anyhow, we've split the players into four groups with the respective winner each group making the finals!" Shin spoke proudly, swinging his hand out to the board to find sis-cat standing carelessly on the table, looking at him with half-lidded blue eyes, "Now, please turn your eyes here as we reveal the group pairings!"

Aichi stared at the board with worried eyes, believing he is going to be sick any moment. Shin smiles and crouches down to Sis-cat when the little black cat turned around and curled up, "This is your big moment Sis-cat." he whispers and gasps when the cat simply yawns, "Sis-cat?" he called out and groans when the cat lets out another yawn, "alright. If you help me out I'll buy you tuna treats."

"K-Kai's in there…" Aichi gasped to himself, looking at the brunette, Kamui crosses his arms and smirks, "That means we won't face him until later. Well, at least this way the finals will be interesting~" he sang out happily while Aichi laughs.

"You uncover one block and decides to lay down for another nap!" Shin cried out, looking at the cat. Ume rolled her eyes with an amused smile and walked over to them, "he'll buy yah' fish sticks too~" she added and watched with a soft laugh as Sis-cat leaped to his paws and swung his claws at the remaining paper boxes before leaping into Ume's arms and cuddled up, "see Shin. That's how you blackmail a cat~"

Kamui grinned, "Check it out! Looks like I'm in C block!" he cheered, his red eyes twinkling brightly. Misaki scans the board before sighing, "Mark B, huh?" she nods with her words, "W-where's my name? I'm in A-A block?" Aichi whispered, scanning the blocks before looking down sadly, "I see. I'm far away from Kai as possible. So m-much for playing him…"

Morikawa stared wide eye, he shook his head, "Wait a minute. This says I have to play…" he trails off, turning his head to the side and looking down the row at the lavender haired female who turned her own head and glared at him with an unimpressed expression, "Y-you know w-what? I'm almost scared to win…"

"Oh y-yeah. I s-should check o-out who I'm f-fighting…" Aichi mumbled, lifting his head before snapping his head around to look at Isaki, "Isaki!" Morikawa gasped, his eyes widen as he looked between the two, "whoa~ battle of the buddies huh!"

Shin smiled, looking at everyone with glowing glasses, "That should be enough time I think. Now everyone knows who they've been paired up against, right?" he questioned, looking at everyone, "Then let's get this day started with the Card Capital tournament! In the rounds of the shop tournament we'll have two fights going on at the same time. The first battle from A block will be Yuta Izaki and Sendou Aichi! And the fights for B block will be Katsumi Morikawa and Tokura Misaki!"

"This is just like a-any other day….well almost…" Aichi thought nervously, looking around the store, "I've p-played on this table…I've played t-this opponent…so why am I s-still nervous?"

Emi shyly tugged on Ume's white shirt and looked up with innocent eyes, "W-would you say that Izaki is one of the better players?" she blurted out, Ume laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her head, "In complete honesty? I've never seen him play before…hehe~"

"Sorry Misaki~ I can't hold back. I hope you're prepared~" Morikawa grinned at the female standing across from him, said girl rolled her eyes, unimpressed and turned her head around, "Shin! Start this up already!"

Shin pouted and covered his mike as he looks at Misaki, "Please call me referee for today." he whimpered, his glasses flashes as he dipped his head low and removed his hand from the mike, "Well players. It is time to place your grade zero's down on the circle! If your deck is shuffled and ready, please place it into the deck zone. We've decided who will be going first. So everyone draw your starting hand!"

Ume gasped with wide eye, she watched as Aichi accidentally dropped his beginning cards, "Aichi-kun. Calm down." she breathed holding her arms to her chest, Shin smiles kindly and gently patted her on the head, "Okay. You can re-shuffle your deck." he spoke, looking at the short bluenette who smiled thankfully and quickly reshuffled. Emi frowned with concern and looks up at Ume, "Why is Aichi acting so nervous?" she asked, Ume frowns and looks back at Emi, "I don't know…"

"Man. He just isn't like himself today…why isn't he playing like he always does?" Kamui questioned with worry.

Shin grinned, himself excited. Ume looks up at the man and notices the expression on his face, smiling she quickly twirled around him and took the mike. Shin blinks blankly, unaware of what just happened, he looks blankly down at his empty hands, "Hello everyone! I'm Ume Hikari and I'm Nitta Shin's assistant! So without further interruptions, let's start the battles!" she called gleefully, her eyes twinkling brightly unaware of the amused eyes were directed to her by the game fighters and viewers, "Ume~ I wanted to do that~" Shin whined, his hands on his cheeks as he shook his head, the girl simply smirked at him, he swore she suddenly grow devil horns and tail.

"Stand up, Vanguard!"

"Barcgal!"

"Iron Wall Dragon, Shieldon!" Izaki called out, his amber eyes scans his cards and then looks across to Aichi, he blinks and frowns, "err…you do know you're going first, right?" he questions softly.

"Huh?" Aichi jumps in surprise, he looks down at his deck and draws a card, "I…I know…um." he mumbles softly, looking at his cards and frowns deeply, "I don't h-have any grade twos…I forgot to do a redraw…" he thought with panic, his stomach twisting. With a soft sigh, he ducks his head and places a card down, "r-right then. I start my turn I guess…I ride Wingal. And now I move Barcgal to r-rear guard. Alright. I attack." he says and then gasps, shaking his head, "s-sorry. I forgot the p-person who goes first c-can't attack. Um…I'll end my turn there t-then."

The other nods his head, he quickly draws a card and looks through his hand, "Alright. I ride the Winged Dragon, Skyptero. I attack Wingal with Skyptero." he says and twists his card around, "now I check for a drive trigger." Izaki holds the card up to reveal he had none. Aichi nods and he too checks for a damage trigger, none, "that's all from me."

With a soft frustrated sigh, Aichi draws another card, "This is it. If I don't draw a grade two unit I'm finished." he thought to himself, clenching his eyes close tightly and quickly pulls the card out, he smiles in relief upon getting Gallatin, "y-yes. I ride t-the Knight of S-Silence, stand u-up Gallatin! And I c-call Marron to r-rear guard!" Aichi breaths deeply, "I support G-Gallatin with Barcgal and a-attack Skyptero." he calls out as the brunette guards with a card, "checking for drive trigger! There it is, stand t-trigger activated. Gallatin gets 5000 attack power a-and in addition I can h-have one of my rear guards s-stand up…" he spoke and looks down at his mat, his eyes widen upon seeing zone standing down, "I haven't a-attacked with Marron yet. T-The trigger is wasted…"

Ume looks between Aichi and Izaki, Aichi had attacked once again and just like before Izaki blocked the attack. Turning her attention onto Misaki and Morikawa's table, she watches with amusement as the boy had drawn another grade three, but couldn't play it because, like always Morikawa hadn't drawn a single grade two. Upon noticing this, the boy screamed in frustration, with a nervous laugh, Ume tilts her head, "A great start players! Keep it up!"

"What's wrong with m-me? I keep making all t-theses little mistakes…" Aichi thought nervously, his blue eyes looking down sadly, "I ride Assault Dragon, Blightops! And I summon another Blightops!" Izaki cries out loudly, placing the cards down and drawing Aichi's direct attention. Ume lets out a soft sigh upon the fact Izaki being to nervous to remember the rules, he had tried to attack Gallatin with Blightops, only to have Aichi to say the attack isn't strong enough, "of cause not. It's all apart of my master plan! Checking drive trigger, alright. I've got an extra 5000 and also I get another card."

Ume frowns, she shook her head, "Sorry Izaki! But you can't~" she interrupted, making both boys look at her with questioning eyes, "Your Vanguard unit is from the Tachikaze clan, Manaka is from the Kagero clan that trigger won't activate unless you have a unit from the Kagero clan on the field."

"It's hard to believe somebody would build a deck without knowing the basics." Kai sighed, closing his green eyes while Taishi simply grinned like a big brother, "Little red sure knows a lot about Vanguard. I wonder why she's never played the game before." he spoke making the brunette look at Ume with interest, "hm."

Izaki groans, his head ducks as he places the card into his hand, "My attack doesn't go through." he groans, Aichi blinks innocently, "Don't w-worry about it. M-Mistakes happens right?" Izaki smiles and quickly attacks with his other Blightops only to have the blue haired boy guard, "he attacked in t-the wrong order and h-he didn't have support f-for his units. W-What's going on with him?" Aichi thought, looking at Izaki's side of the field, "I g-get it. It must be his first tournament too. H-He's as nervous as I am…and if Izaki is feeling nervous then maybe everyone else is the same."

Aichi breaths deeply, he smiles feeling a lot better. He draws another card and quickly places it down, "Kneel before your king! Enter the fight, King of Knights, Alfred!"

"Looks like Aichi is finally putting his game face on!" Kamui cheered, lifting his fist up with a massive grin.

"I call Gallatin and Elaine to the rear guard!" Aichi called out, holding the two cards out and placing them onto the field, "With support of Elaine, Gallatin will attack your Vanguard!" Izaki quickly guards, Aichi smiles brightly, "Now it's Alfred's turn! King of Knights always attacks without support, but he gains 2000 attack power from every royal paladin on field. That's a 10000 attack bonus! Checking for drive trigger! No trigger for the first one. Second check! No trigger…" Izaki frowns and does a damage check, upon getting nothing he places it into his damage bar, "Lastly with the support of Flogal, I have Marron attack your Vanguard!" Izaki sighs and places another card onto his damage bar, he now has three cards in his damage zone.

"How is this happening? A minute ago Aichi was trembling and now he is beating me!" Izaki thought with worry, his amber eyes flashing as Aichi made eye contact. "Izaki, I'm not nervous anymore. I've been a wreak all day. When I saw you were nervous as well, I felt a lot better. There's no reason to be like that when your playing your favourite game with a friend." Aichi smiles happily over at the other boy who blinks before returning the smile, "You know what Aichi. You're right. What was I thinking? If I'm not having fun, then there is no point playing."

Ume breaths in relief and tilts her head, her eyes sparkles brightly as she watches the fight continue. Now both aren't too worried about losing but are now having fun, the battle is actually a really epic battle to watch. Izaki is actually a really good player, he looked like he is a pro at this, easily coming up with new plans on the sport. It amazed her, she watched with a bright smile as Aichi quickly countered Izaki's attack, she let out a low whistle when Aichi got dribble critical and in the end, Aichi won, "Ladies and gentleman! Please join me upon congratulating the first winner of the day!" she cried out, grabbing Aichi's hand, forcing herself not to blush, she held it high, "Sendou Aichi!"

Aichi smiles at her only making Ume blush brightly, she quickly let go and walked to the other table, Aichi watches her go with a smile before looking at Izaki, "thanks Izaki! Playing with a friend really helped me relax." he laughs while the other nodded in agreement, "Me too." he grins before both turned to look at the other table to find Ume gently patting Morikawa on the head while he sobbed, "There's no way! Please tell me this is some kind of cruel joke! Losing in the first round to a girl!"

Ume rolled her eyes and looked at Misaki and winked, "And our second winner is my dear friend, Tokura Misaki!" she spoke loudly, lowering her mike and throwing her arms around the older woman.

Aichi watches both females, "Misaki and Ume. They've both been so relaxed and easy going during this. Some people just don't seem to get nervous…Even Kamui and Kai doesn't look nervous at all. Unlike me…" he sighs before noticing Ume pull away and crouch over a little with a sigh of relief, Misaki breathed softly her hand on her chest and then both females began to talk to each other while laughing, "Whoa. They both do get nervous after all."

"So this is a Vanguard tournament, if I can win one more time, they'll put me into the finals."

~#~#~#~

Ume breathed deeply and rubbed her forehead. She ran her fingers through her short black hair as she gazed down at the fight stand in front of her and smiled before looking at the crowd waiting within the store, "There you have it folks! After two action pact rounds we've got our four winners!" she called out, waving her hand out to the four standing in a row. The morning had been an interesting morning, Aichi almost lost to her Ninja Vanguard player, who is actually their teacher in disguise, Mr Mark "Our finalists are! Sendou Aichi from block A!" Aichi blushed a bright red colour in embarrassment as the crowd began to clap and cheer for him, "B block winner! Tokura Misaki!" Ume called out proudly while the lavender haired female blushed lightly and tried to hid behind her locks, "Don't try my patience!" she growled out when Morikawa and Izaki joked about her blushing, "Winner of block C, Katsuragi Kamui!" she called out and chuckled in amusement as the small boy 'coolly' held his hands up at the cheering, "Best in diapers!" Morikawa yelled out making Kamui growl out angrily, "And our Block D winner! Kai Toshiki!"

Ume laughed and handed the mike back to the somewhat depressed Shin, she had kind of stolen the referee rule from him. Laughing nervously, she rubbed the back of her head and stepped away from him, "Thank you ladies and gentlemen! But before we move on there is one more thing we have to take care off." he spoke, walking to stand between the winning four.

"Drawing numbers, right!" Kamui cried out, waving his hand out gleeful. Shin chuckled and shook his head, "Nope! Time for lunch!" Ume flinched as Kamui fell to the ground with a groan, he quickly scrambled to his feet and stood in front of Shin with narrowed eyes, "are you serious!" Shin smiles at the boy and points at the board, "check it out. It's on the schedule and everything~" he almost sang out as Kamui blinks innocently and looks at the board that lists everything, "well…look at that…"

"Like I was saying, we'll break now for lunch and meet back here at~ 1'oclock. Do you're best not to be late."

Ume twists a part of her black hair around her finger as she came to stand next to Misaki, "ah. That's just o-over an hour." Aichi said softly, looking at the clock before him, Ume and Misaki looks down at Kamui, he waved his tiny fists around with frustration, "aww~ Why do we have to wait an hour! I wanna get this going now!" he cried loudly, shaking his head and clenching his teeth, "well. Unlike you some of us actually need to eat food." Misaki sighed with her arms crossed, Aichi blinks his blue eyes, they widen for a second, "oh. I d-didn't bring anything."

"I did." Emi smiled brightly, walking up to the small trio holding a basket, "see~" she says happily, lifting the top to reveal many sandwiches, "Oh whoa! You've got a whole picnic there~" Kamui gasped, holding his hand up in front of his chest with red cheeks, Ume didn't have the heart to tell him he is acting like a woman in distress, "you're amazing really. To prepare all that food for the enjoyment of others."

The small blonde girl sighed and turned around, blankly ignoring Kamui, "I didn't do it all myself. Mum helped too." she sighed to herself when she suddenly heard a soft meow, looking down she found Sis-Cat sitting innocently in front of her feet, "Hey there little guy. What's the matter?" Emi asked leaning down to the cat, "I understand a little cat, I can tell you what he wants." Misaki said, Emi looks up at her with wide eyes and asked a soft 'really' to which the taller woman sighs, "um no. Just messing with yah."

"Did she just…?" Aichi began, looking at Kamui who stared back with round red eyes, "Make a joke?" he added in before both gasped upon seeing Misaki glare at them. The lavender haired woman turned back to look at Emi with soft eyes, "Sis-Cat just wanted you to know that you can't eat in the store. There's a bench in the alleyway next to the store you can eat at."

Emi nods with a soft smile, "Okay then." she says happily and turning around, "Ume-chan. You'll come eat too, right? I made enough for everybody." she spoke hopefully, said girl found herself blushing and nervously rubbed the back of her head, "oh…um okay…"

"Yay."

Ume smiles to herself, "This is really good Emi-chan." she hums, looking at the blonde haired girl in pink. The three now sat on the green bench outside the store, Emi sitting between the two older children. Emi swung her legs a little, "Really? I'm glad you like it."

"Hey." the trio turns their heads to see Misaki walking up to them, holding a trey with three drinks, "Thirsty?" she asks softly, Aichi smiles and nods, "yeah. Thanks a-a lot." he says taking his drink while the other two girls took theirs and nodded in agreement, "I felt bad about making you leave the store." Misaki admitted almost guilty as she looks at the three with glowing blue eyes.

"Oh! We was just talking about how being here is so much fun." Emi giggled, her own blue eyes shimmering in the sunlight above them. Misaki smiles at her and leans down with a cat bowel, "Well, you're not alone. There's a cat door." and as she says this, Sis-cat walks through the door, towards his own lunch.

Ume smiles as Emi offers some to Misaki, she runs her fingers through her hair and turns her head, catching a certain trio spying on them from around the corner. She blinks and stares blankly as Kamui goes off into a some kind of daze, "You know…you can come over too if you're hungry." she calls out causing two of the three to shyly walk over to them, Emi smiles happily and offers the food to them, "Whoa Emi. This is really good." The female with glasses smiles brightly at the blonde. Ume blinks as Kamui pops up next to his friends and began to bicker.

"Ah. Young love." Ume laughs as she stood and walked towards Misaki and is soon joined by Aichi, "w-what?" he asks softly and looks back at Kamui who is know shyly talking to Emi, "Young l-love?" Ume laughs herself and gently pats him on the head, "There-there. Don't you worry. It'll only hurt your head more." she smirks as his face turns a redder colour.

"Hey! It's my lunch! I can share it with who ever I want! Got a problem with that!

The trio jumped at the sudden scream, snapping their attentions to the small blonde, Aichi sweat drop and stepped towards her, "E-Emi, I'm sure Kamui only g-got a little excited. You c-can have some if your h-hungry." he spoke, looking down at the spiky haired boy who blushed, "r-really? Oniisan?" Kamui asked innocently, glancing back at the angry blonde who sighed and leant back to calm herself down, "yeah sure. There's enough to go around. I guess I could share my lunch with somebody like you."

Ume blinks a little, holding back a laugh as Kamui went into some kind of day dream, opening his mouth wide, "ahhhh~" he almost sang out with a pink face. She bust into laughter when Aichi actually ended up innocently placing the sandwich into his mouth. She covered her mouth in hopes to calm herself down, only to fail, "Oh God." her muffled voice came through, especially when Kamui went on about how good the food is, "I'm going inside." she said as quickly as she could and speed walk back to the store, "Oh God! I love young children!" she thought to herself with amused smile, poor Kamui if he only knew it wasn't his beautiful Emi who feed him but her brother. She almost laugh out louder once more as she tried to imagine the young boys face.

Still smiling, the small dark haired girl stepped within the store with sparkling eyes, the thought of Kamui still in her head. Lifting her head, she blinks upon finding Kai and Taishi within the store alone, "What up grumpy bear?" she asked, walking past Kai to lean against a fight table next to Taishi. Who burst into laugh at the nickname she had given Kai, "grumpy bear. Brilliant." the blonde laughed, shaking his head as the brunette simply closed his eyes, his lips pressed into a thin line, not smirking but not frowning either.

"I expected better at this tournament." Kai spoke, making both Ume and Taishi look at him with questioning eyes, "Really? Don't you find it interesting that Misaki has made it all the way to the finals considering she had just started playing Vanguard a couple of weeks ago? It's pretty cool, right?" Taishi asked with a wide grin, Ume nodded in agreement before turning to look at Kai, "It is pretty cool, but considering the mood grumpy bear is in, I think he has something different to say about that." she hummed carelessly, tapping her fingers against the table behind her, "It just shows how weak theses players really are."

Ume breathed deeply, she allowed her head to fall backward to look at the wall behind her with a card game poster behind her with the name 'Yu-gi-oh' "never played it." she thought to herself, "See. Told yah so~" she sang out as Taishi tilts his head with a soft sigh, "Yeah but what about Aichi?" he questioned, hearing the boy's name, Ume reeled her head back up and looked at Kai. She almost jumped, startled to find Kai look at both her and Taishi with somewhat dark green eyes, "he's work really hard to get to this point all so he could battle you. That would be a good match."

"Aichi isn't good enough to battle me. Just like everyone else isn't. Here, most of these people don't even know how to play. None of them should be called Vanguard players."

Rolling her eyes with a groan, Ume let out a soft snort, "Gee grumpy bear, haven't you ever heard of something called fun? You should try it sometime. It might help you get that bar out of yah' ass." she sighed to herself, pushing herself from the fight table and stretched out her arms, "Vanguard is about fun isn't it? Try playing a battle for fun." Taishi bit his bottom lip to preventing himself from laughing at her comment, both unaware that her words didn't upset the brunette, in fact it is quite the opposite. Kai sighed and lowered his head, hiding his amused smirk.

"Play vanguard for fun is for weaklings."

"Is that why you look like you're having a pretty good time?" Ume laughed and spun around, walking towards the now awaking Sis-cat on the counter, "Little red is sure something. Isn't she?" Taishi chuckled, watching the dark haired girl began to play with Sis-cat, it also looked like she is talking to the cat about something from the way she is laughing and the cat meowing in return. Kai let out a grunt, but his green eyes narrowed down onto the girl, "she's somewhat interesting."

Shin grinned, now everyone is back he looked around the crowd. Ume sat on the counter with Sis-cat on her lap, cuddling up to her stomach. Shin stood holding a green box with a hole at the top, "Welcome back everybody! And all is there for us is to determine the pairs for the last round." the green haired man spoke proudly and walked toward the bluenette holding the box out, "Please. Pull out a card." Aichi nods and takes a folded up card, he looks down at it with a soft sigh, "no. don't open it yet." Shin almost cries out when Aichi almost opens it, the boy quickly nods as Shin moves down the row until the other Misaki and Kai had their cards, "saving the best for blast." Kamui grinned taking his card out.

"Seriously?" Morikawa groans, hands on his hips, Taishi laughs with grin, "I think he means saving the best for last. Same old Kamui."

"Now! Let's find out the results!"

Aichi looks at his card with narrowed eyes, "Here it is. My chance to be paired up with Kai." he thought and slowly opens the card to reveal a number, "I'm number 1!" he called out bravely, "Four." Kai spoke after followed by 3 from Misaki, "Then that means…" he thought, looking down the row at Kamui waving his card around, "looks like we get to play again Oniisan."

"I have to defeat Kamui to move on."

"I won't hold back Aichi even if you are my future brother."

"Huh…..? Ah, I won't hold back either."

" The winner of these matches will move onto the finals! Let the battle begin!"

"Stand up, Vanguard!"

* * *

**_Well? What do you think? Is it alright or plain bad? I hope to hear from you soon!_**

**_Don't forget to REVIEW, FAVORUITE AND FOLLOW_**


	6. Chapter 6

_****__**A big thanks to ******__MisaQ x Kai, 4fireking, Rolo-chan, KatieSky12 and MissSuzugamori _**_ for reviewing and reading. I hope you'll stick with me during this.^^_**

_**I am a rookie at writing. Please do tell me if I've wrote something wrong, I will fix it as soon as I see your message^^**_

_**A big fat thank you to my lovely beta, StuffStuff! Thank you so much^^**_

_**Enjoy**_

* * *

Chapter 6

Ume breathed deeply, her green eyes sparkles as she looks between the Vanguard tables. Her eyes look over Misaki and Kai; both looked calm and serious and damn, they both looked good doing it. She scratched the back of her head with a troubled frown, Misaki is a close friend of hers. The woman is more then close to her, the older lavender haired female is like her older sister while Kai, well she admires him greatly and surprisingly they've been making progress on becoming friends. At lest they are…well, she can talk to him without him glaring at her, so that was a plus. With a soft sigh, she turned her attention to the other table and a small smile appeared across her face as she looked between the two.

"This is your big match Kamui! Win this match and your dream girl will be yours!" the small male with glass smiles brightly at the boy who blushed as his other friend added in, "new girlfriend!"

Kamui's face turned crimson from embarrassment, he laughed nervously at his two friends, "We'll see…" he mumbled, looking over at the blonde haired female with dreamy eyes. Emi stared blankly back with confusion, Kamui breathed deeply and turned his eyes onto the girls older brothers, "but Aichi has came a long way since we've last fought. I've gotta give it my best!"

"He is one of the best players I've ever fought…defeating him is the only way I can play Kai again." Aichi thought, his round blue eyes sparkles as they look between Kai and Kamui, "losing this battle is not an option!" he thought with determination, his blue eyes narrowing almost dangerously.

Shin grinned, his square shaped glasses flashing as he looks between the two tables, "Players! It is time to decided who will go first, to do so we will use rock paper scissors to settle it!"

Ume giggled lightly at the comment and turned to look at Aichi and Kamui. She has decided, she'll just do what she had done when Aichi fought Misaki, she'll support all four of them. Yes! That is what she'll do. With a bright smile, she nodded her head and turned to sit next to Taishi who flashed a friendly grin at her, "Sup red? Looks like Kamui is going first." he chuckled and Ume turned to look at the nervously laughing boy who was looking at is bare hand.

"Look on the bright side Kamui. At lest going first you c-can upgrade your V-Vanguard faster." Aichi smiles at him, tilting his head as he gazed at the smaller boy who hums, "Hmm, my deck is so aggressive it's better if I get the first attack but you know what? I don't care how this game starts as long as it ends with me taking another step towards becoming shop champion!" Kamui grins, his crimson eyes sparkles brightly as he waved his fist around.

Aichi tilts his head, his blue eyes narrows and it almost looked like he had transformed into a new person, "oh~ You think it's gonna be that easy to win, huh? This isn't gonna end like the last time we played!" Ume lets out a soft sound from the back of her throat, she stared with awe at the bluenette boy.

"Well-Well! Looks like things are getting pretty hot!"

The young lavender haired female rolls her eyes at her uncle and crosses her arms, "Shin. Can we get on with this?" she snorts out and closes her blue eyes, ignoring the man as he nervously began both battles.

"Now with thee players ready to go! Lets get this on with!"

"Stand up, the Vanguard!"

"Stand up, Vanguard!"

"Lizard Doom-Doom!"

"Lozeenge Magus!"

"Battleraizer!"

"Barcgal!"

Ume breathes deeply, her stomach twisted as she gazed at both battles, "Who…who do you think will win?" she asked softly, glancing at the blonde sitting next to her with a weary expression said blonde blinks his round blue eyes and lets out a soft hum in thought, "It's hard to say. Kai is a really-really god player, I've never really seen him lose a battle but Misaki, she has great luck on her side. I've also seen her player, she's a really great player so she may give Kai a run for his money. Kamui is also an awesome player, he's won so many games before, he knows what to do for every situation. Aichi, well, you know how he's progress better then anyone." he grinned at the rosy blush that spread across Ume's face and watched with amusement as she ducked her head.

"You're a lot stronger then last time we've fought!" Kamui called out gleefully, his eyes wide with excitement. Aichi nods his head with determination expression, "You bet! Better not hold back!"

Kamui nods and draws a card, "I'm going to start this match by using Tough Boy! And I'm going move Battleraizer to the rear guard. That's it for me, Oniisan." he smiles brightly, leaning backward and rocking on the back of his feet, eyeing the older boy.

Nodding his head, Aichi scans his new cards and lifted one, "First I ride Little Sage Marron! I move Barcgal back to the rear. Next I call upon Flogal and Epona to rear guard!" he says and a somewhat cocky smirk spread across his face, "now are you ready for my first attack!" he asks and chuckles as Kamui nods with a quick 'Oh I was born ready' looking down at his side of the mat, Aichi rests the cards, "I support Flogal with Epona! And attack Tough Boy! Marron attack your Vanguard with the support of Barcgal!" he called out and checked for a drive trigger, he shrugged upon finding none. His blue eyes lifts and watches as Kamui placed two damage cards into his damage zone, "And I'm done."

"You sure aren't wasting any time, are you Oniisan. Well it is my turn to…" Kamui trialled of and glances over at Emi, he hums with a grin, "ohh~ Keep those's baby blue peeled and keep watching." he thought, glancing at the round blue eyes belonging to Emi. Lifting a card, he slides into his hand, "the cute Kamui rides Brutal Jack!"

Ume giggled, shaking her head, "Cute Kamui." Taishi repeated and Ume simply shrugged, "Well. He is cute for his age."

"Why'd it have to be him! Last time we fought, Brutal Jack was to much for me to handle! I won't let that happen again." Aichi thought, watching as Kamui summoned King of Swords, Shining Lady and Lucky Girl to the battle field, "I activate his counter blast sending Brutal Jack into high gear!" Kamui smirks, flipping one of his cards over in his damage zone, "I swing at Marron with King of Sword!" Aichi frowns and quickly checks for damage trigger, "alright! Critical trigger! Giving Marron more attack points! Yo won't get through now!" he called out and had to breath deeply after talking a bit to fast, "damn…he's right. Most of my units aren't strong enough! They won't break through his defenses but…Brutal Jack can handle it!" Kamui thought, biting his bottom lip hard. He hums and closes his eyes, he turns Lucky girl and uses the card to support Brutal Jack and attacks, "Let's not forget his combat skill! Supported by another Battleroid, he gets another 2000 extra points!" he watches happily as Aichi plays two cards into his damage zone, Aichi growls and closes his eyes as Kamui attacks Flogal and destroys her in battle. He gently lifts Flogal's card and places it into his drop zone, "I'll end my turn by shovelling Battleraizer back into my deck."

Taishi smirks and watches as Morikawa makes faces at the annoyed Misaki, he and Izaki ran from her battle table to have a look at Aichi's. The blonde sighs and tilts his head, "a word of advice. You'll never get a girlfriend like that." he says, looking up at Morikawa as he stopped next to the blonde. Morikawa blinks his eyes widen and he frowns, "W-whatever! I don't care and besides…" he mumbles and looks around the store before looking at Ume sitting in the chair next to Taishi with her hands to her chest watching Aichi and Kamui's fight with tense eyes, "Ume's my girlfriend." Ume blinks, her eyes widen and she snaps her attention to the boy and huffs, "Ha! In your dreams Morikawa!" she snorted, crossing her arms and looking away. Morikawa whimpers and playful places his hand onto his chest, "that's mean! Ume how could you break my heart that way!" he playfully says with puppy-eyes. Izaki smirks himself and tilts his head back, "oh? What happen to Kourin?" he chuckles and laughs loudly when the other boy through his arms around his neck with a loud 'what!'

"Will the teenager boys over there be quiet! You are distracting the players!" Shin called pointing over at the three boys, Morikawa and Izaki both said sorry childishly. Taishi blinks and looks at Shin, "What me too? Not fair." he pouts and crosses his arms over his chest with a sniff, "You're here too." he says, looking at the dark haired female who stuck out her tongue at him, "Maybe he just likes me better."

Aichi frowns deeply and looks down at the card, "last time that guy ran all over me! Alright! Two damage is no big deal! Time for me to take the lead!" he thought to himself, looking at Brutal Jack and nods his head, "I ride Gallatin! Stand up! I also call Marron to rear guard! I'll have Epona support Marron and attack Brutal Jack!" he lets out a soft sigh as Kamui got a strand trigger, adding 5000 extra points to Brutal Jack and stands thee King of Sword. Aichi growls and looks down at his side of the mat, "that means his Vanguard is too powerful for me to attack! With Barcgal support, I'll have Gallatin attack King of Sword!" he says and frowns as he didn't get a drive trigger but was able to get King of Sword into Kamui's drop zone.

"This game is fun, but I think it is time to bring this battle to the next level. Right Oniisan?" he smirks and draws another card and places it into his hand, he smirks widely upon seeing the card before placing it onto the mat, "The sword of battle! The king of keeping it real! Mr. Invincible! I move Shining lady back and with her outta the way, I summon another Mr. Invincible and Brutal Jack! I then place this card into my Vanguard Mr. Invincible's soul charge!"

Emi frowns a little, watching as Kamui flips one of his damage cards back over, "Why did he just flip that card back over?" she asks, her big blue eyes shimmering with wonder. "It's part of Mr. Invincible's ability. It works really well with Brutal Jack because he gets to counter attack!" explained the dark haired boy with bright blue eyes, the boy whose friends with Kamui, he popped up next to the small blonde with a smile. Said blonde blinks and looks at him with confusion, "counter blast? I don't get it. Are you saying that Aichi's in trouble, right now?"

"Yes."

Ume tilts her head to the side, she bits her bottom lip in thought, "Brutal Jack plus two Mr. Invincibles…Aichi-kun…" she whispered to herself with worry, "Aichi Sendou, what will you do now?" Taishi sighed, placing his hand comforting onto Ume's head causing her shorter body to tip slightly.

"First I counterblast by paying one to put Brutal Jack into high gear!" Kamui spoke, flipping the card back over and watches as Aichi quickly guards, "Next up I attack with supported by Lucky Girl."

Aichi's eyes flashes as he stares at the cards, "I won't be able to defend against this." he thought, turning his head to watch Kamui check his twin drive, he sighs in relief upon seeing Kamu inot get a trigger. Pressing his lips into a thin line, he turns his head to check for a damage trigger and groans when he doesn't get one.

"Last attack I use Mr. Invincible supported by Shining Lady!"

"I guard with Llew!" Aichi bit his bottom lip, his blue eyes scans the card mat with worry.

"He only took one damage this turn. Last time these two played eachother, Aichi was tarn to shreds by Brutal Jack…" Izaki mumbled in thought, his big amber eyes lowers to the store's floor within wonder. Morikawa frowns, his red eyes narrows as he crosses his arms, "Haven't you learnt anything? Aichi always stands his ground." Ume smiles, she glances at the boys before returning her attention onto the fight, "….Hard to believe Morikawa used to bully Aichi-kun…now they're good friend…" she thought with a warm smile crawling across her face, she blinks her eyes upon noticing the way Aichi's eyes flashes when he pulled a card, "he must have gotten Blaster Blade…"

Smiling, Aichi breathes deeply. Mumbling a soft 'perfect' under his breath, "it's about time I fought back with everything I got. The power of the light shines the brightest, lead the way! I ride King of Knights Alfred! And I call Blaster Blade to the rear guard!"

"He's putting Blaster Blade way back there!" Morikawa gasped, his eyes widen with bright confusion, "You know I've never seen Aichi play him like that before."

"He's got a plan." Ume spoke up, interrupting her two male friends. Both boys looks back at her with widen eyes before nodding in agreement.

Aichi narrows his blue eyes at the younger boy, "when I call Blaster Blade, as long as there is a Royal Paladin unit within the Vanguard circle, I can activate his counter blast with the cost of two and retire one of your rear guard units." Aichi explained, he breathed deeply and flipped two of his damage cards over, "I chose to retire Brutal Jack!"

"So much for Brutal Jack ripping Aichi-kun apart huh? What an excellent move." Ume smiles brightly, clapping her hand gently in support for the bluenette boy. Morikawa frowns, "Hold on, since when does Blaster Blade have that kind of skill?" he asks making Taishi roll his eyes, "Since always. Newb~" he mocked and laughed as Morikawa spun around and yelled at him, "I'm not a Newb!"

"You're a Newb!" The blonde outright laughed, he grins similar to that of the Cheshire Cat, "Hey! I'm not the one asking about abilities of basic units!"

Morikawa growled and spun around, he crossed his arms with a snort, "Yeah well, Blaster Blade is just a stupid grade two, I'm to busy collecting grade threes to learn about those's lesser cards." he grumbles with a huff while Taishi laughs through clenched teeth, "And that's why you lose…"

Ume blinks as she looks at them and sighs to herself, "Boys! I really need some more female friends!"

"Activating Barcgal's ability! Join the fight Flogal! And with support of Flogal I'll have Blaster Blade attack your Vanguard, !" Aichi called out, throwing his hand out mighty as he heart hammered away within his chest from excitement, "Shout will guard that attack!" Kamui cried desperately, holding the card out. Aichi looks back at his side of the mat and smiles, "I attack with Alfred and as you know, he attacks with support from all his loyal allies! Which means he gets an extra 1000 attack power!" Aichi calls out and checks his twin drive, he doesn't get a trigger not that he needs one, "I attack with Marron supported by Epona!" Aichi frowns as Kamui guard with another Shout, he only got one damage during his turn, "Ah. That's the end of my turn…"

"The classic hit and run strategy!" a voice cried out from behind the small group of teens watching the fight, both Morikawa and Izaki jumps and looks behind them to find Mr. Mark, "How'd you get there!" Morikawa asked with wide eyes, "This is truly a clash between two great warriors!" Izaki smiles brightly and holds a finger up, "You sound like-" he began but cut him off, "I sound like? Oh I sound like a teacher! Is that it? Hahaha? Sorry I don't want to remind you of school on a day like this!" Ume sighs with narrowed eyes, she looks away with a crooked smile, "Sure Mr. Mark. Sure."

"Time for me to stand a draw!"

"He has two grade three units, all I have to do is survive these attacks and on my next turn…I can finally finish this match…" Aichi thought with determination as his blue eyes narrowed.

Kamui scans the cards in his hand before nodding to himself, "I'm activating 's soul charge and with the support from Shining Lady, I'll have attack!" he called out while Aichi groans upon getting nothing from his damage trigger, Kamui grins widely as his eyes shines brightly, "It's about time we finish this, right Oniisan? Supported by Lucky Girl, Mr. Invincible will attack your Vanguard!"

"This is really bad! If Kamui pulls a critical trigger it's all over!"

"I guard that attempt." Aichi breaths deeply, holding his Flash Shield, Iseult. Kamui groans and shakes his head, "Oh man! Why'd you have to go and do that!" he frowns deeply and watches as Aichi places the card into the drop zone, "I active her skill. By dropping a card my hand, I cancel you're attack!"

Taishi grins brightly, turning his body to fold his arms over his human standing post, said girl grunts under his weight, "So by using that ability Aichi makes the twin drive completely useless. Right?" he asks Morikawa childishly. Morikawa's left eyebrow twitches and he turns his body slightly with his hands on his hips, "OH…yeah." Kamui groans as he checks two card, he reveals the last to show a critical trigger, "WHAT! A critical trigger! If that attack went through, that would have been enough for Kamui to win the match. Aichi made a good call…"

"That's the end of my turn."

Aichi lets out a breath of air he didn't know he was holding, "Thank you Iseult." he thought to himself, looking at the card in his drop zone.

smiles brightly with his arms crossed, "First it was Blaster Blade, now it's Iseult. He just keeps getting better and better. That Aichi!" he chuckles to himself. Thinking back on his own Vanguard battle when he had dressed himself as a Ninja and fought Aichi. It was real surprise how the blue haired had changed. "Final turn." a voice called out, hash and almost emotionless, blinking his eyes, the blonde haired teacher turns his attention onto Kai and Misaki's table, he looks at the brunette with surprise. Misaki glares at the boy, "We're not finished yet!" she calls out and looks at the three cards within her hand, "This hand should be good enough to defend! I've gotta guard all three of his attacks…" she thought to herself, looking at her deck with weary eyes, "counting on that heal trigger, huh?" Kai speaks up gaining thee lavender haired female's attention, "your determination to keep fighting is impressive…but this is as fair as you go! This is the end of the line!"

Shin turns his attention onto their fight and watches as Misaki desperately guards each of Kai's attack before she was out of cards, "I've used my hold hand! But that's more then enough protection! Just as long as he doesn't get a trigger!"

"I stand my units and draw!" Aichi called out, his eyes burning, "Okay! I can win this match!" he thought as he looks at Kumai, he breaths deeply and reaches out to lift up a card when he frozen upon hearing Kai, "I got a drive trigger. This battle is over. I'll raise my dragons power by 5000 and I'll have Nehalem stand back up!" Misaki's blue eyes widens as she stares at her damage zone, "I used up my hole hand to defend it and it still wasn't enough!"

"Are first player moving onto the final match is Toshiki Kai!"

Ume blinks and claps for the brunette before slowly looking at her lavender haired friend, "Poor Misaki…" she thought to herself, leaning back on Taishi as he cheered for the brunette. "She still fought great!" Ume blinks as she suddenly became aware of Kai standing next to her and talking with Taishi, well more the blonde talking as Kai simply nodding his answer, "What a stuck up kind of guy…" she found herself thinking as she stared at him from the corner of her eye.

"That settles it! The winner of this battle is moving to fight Kai in the championship. I'm taking this!" Aichi thought, hardening his eyes and narrowing them at Kamui before looking at the card mat. "I know Aichi really wants to battle Kai, but I can't lose in front of Emi…" Kamui thought, glancing at the blonde who stood with concern clearly written within her blue pools, "Sorry Aichi. You're going down."

Aichi breaths deeply, his stomach twists as he looks at both of their damage zones, both held four cards, "My turn and we've both got four damage. I've gotta find a way to get my attack's through." he thought, drawing a card and biting his lip. The blue haired male looks at Kamui and smiles brightly, "HERE I come Kamui! First I switch the positions of Marron and Epona, to make way for Gancelot! Now I'll have Wingal replace Flogal!"

"His shifting around his battle stations to increase his attack power! This is the most important part of the game, I'll defend with everything I got." Kamui thought, his stomach flips as he breaths softly, feeling over whelmed.

Turning his Wingal card, Aichi looks up at Kumai, "With support from Wingal, I raise the power of Blaster Blade! He's attacking your Vanguard head on! Thanks to Wingal's ability, he gets an extra 4000 attack power!" he calls out and watches as Kamui looks long and hard at thee four card within his hand before nodding and looking up, "I'll let that one through." he calls out, shocking the ones around him, "Damage trigger check? Yes I got one! That's an extra 5000 point to my Vanguard! And I return my rear guard to a standing position." Aichi shakes his head, he clenches his fist, "Power boost or not, I'm attacking with Alfred! Okay Royal Paladin's it's time to lend your power to the King!"

"I guard with Shining Lady!"

Izaki sighs, he tilts his head with half-lidded amber eyes, "Well, that should do it. A damage shield on top of that boost he got for his Vanguard." he spoke while Morikawa nods his head and looks at the brown haired male, "looks like this attack…isn't gonna be strong enough." Kamui breathed deeply, "I guard with Rock the Wall too!"

"Huh? What's the point of doing that? He just wasted another card…" Morikawa frowned with Ume tried to shake her head underneath the weight of a certain blonde, "I wouldn't be so sure of that. Kamui could have put it there as reinsurances. You can never tell if the other will get a trigger or not." she explained, watching as Aichi drawn his twin drive and only got one trigger, "With a double shield, this attack isn't going anywhere. Hm." the boy thought with narrowed eyes, Ume sighed, "see. Kamui planned ahead. That critical Aichi-kun drew won't help him…"

Aichi looked back at the card, "I won't let this chance go to waste." he thought to himself, looking back at the mat, "I activate this critical trigger! Giving 5000 boost power to Solitary Knight, Gancelot!" he called out, "I just need to pull of one last damage! It all comes down to this attack!"

"I'm going to move Shining Lady to the drop zone and Rock the Walls ability allows me to move him to the soul charge." Kamui spoke and almost smirked, "that makes five cards in the soul."

"I attack your vanguard with Gancelot supported by Marron!" Aichi called out, his nails digging into his skin as he looked at Kamui, "With only two cards in his hand, he might not have anything left to defend with…" he thought and groaned as Kamu iused one more card to guard, using another Rock the Wall and then moved it into the soul charge. "I gave it everything I could, but it wasn't enough! I was so close to ending it…"

Emi frowns deeply, she looks at the mat before slowly making her way to Ume, "Ume-chan?" she called the older woman's attention, "Don't cards normally go to the drop zone after they've guarded an attack?" she questioned softly, tilting her head to the side cutely. Ume smiles a little and again tries to shake her head, "no, not Rock the Wall. It has this ability that lets it be placed into the soul, not the drop zone." she explained and grumbled as Taishi chuckled, ruffling her hair, "aww! My baby's growing up! Becoming a big girl now." he joked and laughed at Ume's attempted to glare at him. Morikawa frowns, he ducks his head a little in thought, "Now that I think about, Kamui's soul must be pretty big."

"I stand and draw!" Kamui called out, letting everyone know it was his turn, "Listen up Aichi. It was fun but we need to bring this game to an end!" he says while Aichi frowns and looks at the two cards within his own hand, "I can't let him do that….Hit me with your best short!" Kamui grins and draws a new card, "here goes. I ride on !" he called out confusing and surprising everyone around them, "And now, I soul charge using 's skill! That makes eight cards in the soul, however I haven't flipped any card in the damage zone so there aren't any abilities in play."

"He just wasted another card…what's he up to?" Aichi thought, lowering his head a little as Kamui places the king of sword into rear guard, "I play King of Sword! I'm coming at yah Oniisan! King of Sword, attack Alfred!" he called out as Aichi sadly had to let the attack through, "he has two more attacks! And I have two defend cards, I can do this!" Aichi thought, biting his bottom lip hard. "With support from Shining Lady! I attack your Vanguard again! Lets go! !" he cried out, almost desperately, "I guard that with Llew!" Aichi called out and looks at his last card, "Okay! Here comes the last one." he thought just as Kamui went to attack and he quickly guarded with his last card and intercepting with Blaster Blade, "he has pull a drive trigger here or the turn passes back to me." Kamui looks at Aichi before checking his last card, "Stand Trigger! I stand King of Sword and adds 5000 to my Vanguard!" Aichi clenches his eyes shut with a frown, "I guess this is the end…"

Emi gasps and clenched onto Ume's side, her eyes widen almost as if she and everyone else close to Aichi and Kamui could see the real battle, "He got Elaine!" Ume gasped watching as Aichi uses her effect to rise Alfred's power by 5000 and he recovers one damage.

"I did it! I was able to withstand all of his attacks!"

"There's something you should know Aichi!" Kamui called, almost smugly to the blue haired boy. Kamui lifts up his small stack of cards where his Vanguard was, "my Vanguard's soul has eight cards in it."

"A soul blast!" Aichi asked before frowning as he watched Kamui drop all the eight cards, "What does it do?"

"I move my eight cards from my soul to my drop zone and now, I pay the cost of five from the damage zone. Activating 's special ability makes all my units stand up again!"

"What!"

Ume's eyes widen, she stared as the cards looked as if they're glowing brightly. They hovered of the mat and all turned to stand up again, "In order for Kamui to active 's soul blast, he had to have eight cards within his soul stack and five un used damage cards. And you can only use that move when your vanguard lands a damaging attack on the other player!"

"Ah. I see, that explains why he's been sending so many cards to the soul stack recently." Izaki spoke while Morikawa blinks and nods his head, slowly and almost uncertain, "yeah. Your right, he's been preparing for this moment through the hole game. Hm. Exciting!"

Aichi stared with wide eyes down at Kumai's side of the field, "all of his units are ready to attack!"

"This is the end Oniisan! The true power of ! With support from Lucky Girl, I'll attack your Vanguard!" Kamui yelled and watches as Aichi growls, "there's nothing I can do to stop you!"

"And there you have it! The winner! Kamui Katsuragi!"

Ume groaned walking up to the group that moved to stand with Aichi, "Morikawa. Don't insult him." she grumbled, crossing her arms as she stood next to the boy, "not bad for a shrimp…" she thought to herself, looking at Aichi, "A really…cute one…" she found herself think, her pale skin heating up with each thought that filled her 'innocent' mind.

"Hey. Aichi?" Kamui called out, walking to the blue haired boy with a smile, "you've gotten so much better since the last time we battled. At this rate…I don't like my chances for next time…" he chuckled, rubbing the back of his head, somewhat awkwardly.

"The battle was fun, but losing was terrible…" Aichi thought with a somewhat sorrow filled whimper. Shin walks up him, his eyes runs down the bluenette before a smile spreads across his face and looks at Kamui, "we'll have the last fight after a short break, kay?"

Kamui nods and screeches out his arms, "You'll be waking me! Right Emi?" he called, looking at the small blonde who blinks her large blue eyes and looks at Aichi nervously, said boy simply laughed at her horror-struck expression, "so he does get nervous." Shin thought, watching Kamui almost fall off the stand, "hmm?"

Ume smiles sadly and walks up to Misaki. She tilts her head forward and looks at the large white board in front of them, "You did great, Misaki-chan. You're one of the best female players." she commented, reaching up a drawing a red line from Kai's name to the final round, Misaki looks at Ume. Her blue eyes shimmers as she watches the way the bunny like ribbon bounced around.

"Ume…you're so important to everyone. I wonder…. Do you even notice it?" she thought to herself, smiling softly down at the shorter girl, "Thanks a lot, Ume." she nods her head making the other smile brightly.

"So? Did you guys have fun?" both girls turned their heads to find Shin standing between them, his arms behind his back. His glasses catches the light from above him as he looks straight at the board, he chuckles as Misaki snorts loudly, grumbling about how he made her enter tournament.

"You aren't allowed to leave yet. Stick around until after the final battle. Both of you."

"Huh?"

~#~#~

Ume laughs, she hums and rubs her cheek lightly as she listened to Kamui growl on about the fact his stand is so low that he couldn't look Kai in the face, "Fine. I'll play with a height disadvantage." Kamui grumbles, pouting much like the child he really is.

Tilting her head forward, Ume hums softly to herself before becoming aware of a certain blue haired boy not standing within the crowd. She looks back at Kai and sighs as the boy teases Kamui, she rolls her eyes with her own smile before turning around and slowly approaching the bluntly obvious upset boy.

"Aichi-kun?" she called out gently, taking the set on the opposite side of the table the boy sat. She sits directly opposite of him, "Aichi-kun. It's okay." she spoke gently, gaining the boy's attention. His round blue eyes lifts up and looks at Ume, he blinks a little, "Ume-chan?" he whispers gently, his dropping once more with sadness.

Ume frowns and throws herself back against the chair, "Don't look so sad! Aichi-kun nobody can win all the time! For example, Kai's so much better then Kamui and there's somebody out there who is probably so much better then Kai…" she says, turning her head to find the blue haired boy shyly looking up at her, "Doubt that he'll admit it of course. He's very head-strong. Oh, don't forget about the bar shoved up his ass." Ume snorts and smiles when she hears Aichi laugh a little, "but really Aichi-kun. You win some and you lose some. There's no place to go but up-up-up!" she giggled, pumping her hand in the air every time she said 'up'.

Aichi nods slowly and pushes himself up from the table, "Hmmm." he hums and smiles brightly, "thanks Ume-chan. You always know how to cheer me up." he chuckles and walks towards the girl who also pushed herself up, "great! I'm so glad." Ume laughs before strictly becoming quiet when Aichi firmly placed his hands onto her shoulder and stretched up, pecking her on the cheek.

"Thank you so much Ume-chan."

Ume's eyes grow wide and she found herself turning a bright red colour, "A-Aichi!" she squealed, stumbling from the bluenette, hands pressed to her rosy cheeks, she tried avoid looking at the boy.

"Hey? Are you still upset about losing?" Morikawa asked, walking up to two. He looks between them with confusion before looking directly down at Aichi, brushing off the happy smile on his face, "No matter what happens, you aren't allowed to quit. I happen to be an expert!"

Ume puffed out her stain red cheeks and looks at the dark haired male, "In what? Losing?" she huffed, placing her hands onto her hips as she stared at the male with narrowed eyes, "Exactly!" Morikawa spoke happily, almost mighty and above everyone. Ume grunts and looks away with a tiresome smile.

"Thanks guys. I really needed that."

~#~#~#~

"Whoa…that was great…such an awesome match…." Aichi whispered with amazement, he looks between the two boys, "Amazing. Their both just such skilled fighters…hopefully, I can be like them one day."

"Kai won thought. Kamui did really good." Ume mumbles softly, placing with her fingers as they twisted around and clapped together in front of her body. Her green eyes shimmers as she watches Kamui whimper, "You did great Kamui! You came runner-up!" she called out to the upset boy.

Shin looks around and notices that a few people was about to leave, "Wait! Wait!" he cried, throwing his hands around preventing the ones he needed leaving, "the champion has been decided. But that isn't the only excitedly thing going on! I have very important news for everyone!"

"Huh?"

"Pardon me. The shop champion, Toshiki Kai…" Shin began, walking to the large white board and began to write names down, "The runner up, Katsuragi Kamui will be joined by our other semi-finalists Sendou Aichi and Tokura Misaki as they prepare for this." he spoke brightly and excitedly holding out a poster that read 'World vanguard ChampionSHIP!' "Excuse the small poster. There was a large version but the Sis-Cat had a nap on it."

Morikawa gasped and slapped Aichi on the shoulder, "Great work man!" he cheered while Ume smiles brightly and claps her hands for her close friend, "You got through!" she spoke making the blue haired boy turn to her in confusion, "But w-what is it?" he asked, tilting his head almost cutely, "The World Vanguard Championship is our countries biggest card tournament, by making the top four you prove you are ready represent Card Capital on the pro-level." she explained to him, still blushing from earlier, "First you have to compete in a national eateries but all four of you are strong. I'm sure you'll have no problems. After playing in the regional's, you compete against the best players around the world! The time can only have three players with one standing as an alternate."

Ume smiles brightly, before noticing not only was Aichi listening to her but so was the hole store. Her green eyes widen before her face turned a new shade of red and she ducked her head with embarrassment, "Nothing less expected from my 'assistant'." Shin chuckled loudly, his glasses flashing within the light, "Each team needs an manager, encase of medical accidents and such. Up for the job Ume?" he questions, ducking his head to look at his 'assistant' with a wide Cheshire cat like grin, Ume blinks her eyes and shyly looks around at the others, "She says yes!" Kamui yelled out after ten minutes, "Kamui!" Ume screamed her face still red from embracement, Kamui stuck his tongue out at the girl, "naa~ too late to back out now!" he smirks while she growls and huffs.

"Everyone please! Congrats to these five! Toshiki Kai! Katsuragi Kamui! Tokura Misaki! Sendou Aichi! And Hikari Ume! They're all going to regionals!"

* * *

**_Well? What do you think? Is it alright or plain bad? I hope to hear from you soon!_**

**_Don't forget to REVIEW, FAVORUITE AND FOLLOW_**


End file.
